PDF version - Ultra High Fidelity Magazine

No. 71 

$4.99 

DIGITAL PLAYERS: The universal player, 

from McCormack, and the highly-praised 

Simaudio Equinox 

NEW CONNECTORS: We try new minimummetal 

connectors from WBT and Eichmann, 

and we try several cables from Atlas 

PLUS: Small but potent speakers from 

Totem, Reference 3a and Studio Lab. 

Paul Bergman lays out the arguments 

for the two-channel and surround sound 

protagonists 

ISSN 0847-1851 

Canadian Publication Sales 

Product Agreement 

No. 40065638 

RETURN LABELS ONLY 

OF UNDELIVERED COPIES TO: 

Box 65085, Place Longueuil, 

Longueuil, Qué., Canada J4K 5J4 

Printed in Canada

“I’ve now found a way to recommend LPs to many audiophiles 

who bypassed that stage altogether.” 

Albert Simon, UHF No. 70 

JUST 

J U S T I C E 

MAY 

Justice Audio 

9251-8 Yonge St., Suite 218 

Richmond Hill, ON L4C 9T3 

Tel. : (905) 780-0079 • Fax : (905) 780-0443 

www.justiceaudio.com 

sales@justiceaudio.com 

“No matter what recordings you’re collecting, this could be 

your next player. And you might have it a long time.” 

Gerard Rejskind, UHF No. 71 

A U D 

AUDIO 

I O 

Goldring GR1 

McCormack UDP-1 

Just May Audio 

9251-8 Yonge St., Suite 218 

Richmond Hill, ON L4C 9T3 

Tel. : (905) 780-0079 • Fax : (905) 780-0443 

Castle 

QED 

Target 

Vandersteen 

Audioprism 

McCormack 

Rega 

WBT 

Gamut 

Apollo 

GutWire 

ASW Speakers 

Goldring 

Milty 

Perfect Sound 

Nitty Gritty 

Gradient Speakers 

LAST record care 

WATTGate 

Audiophile CDs 

Audiophile LPs 

DVD and SACD

Five Atlas Cables 32 

Who? That’s what everyone has been asking us. 

We do a blind test on some of these British cables. 

Simaudio Moon Equinox 35 

Good enough to be your last Red Book CD player? 

Issue No. 71 

Simaudio Moon I-3 37 

Like the company’s other integrated amplifiers, it 

looks deceptively small. 

Reference 3a Dulcet 39 

Can the company’s distinctive front-slanted 

loudspeakers be scaled down and still sound right? 

Totem Rainmaker 42 

A speaker to bring some sunshine into your life 

Studio Lab SLB 102 Speakers 44 

Too much bass? Just add a subwoofer. No, really! 

muRata Super Tweeters: a Second Look 47 

So, how high can you really hear? 

McCormack UDP-1 Player 50 

Silver discs? It plays ’em all. Now we set out to find 

out…how well? 

Cover story: Two of three small speakers reviewed in 

this issue: the Totem Rainmaker and the Reference 3a 

Dulcet. In the background: a field in the Eastern 

Townships of Quebec 

NUTS&BOLTS 

Multichannel and Stereo 19 

by Paul Bergman 

Is stereo slated for replacement? Dig into the 

history of the medium, and it turns out that it 

depends on what you mean by stereo. 

Rendezvous 

WBT Gets Religion 26 

WBT’s VP, Gabriele Hofmann, explains why her 

connector company has chosen a new direction. 

Think Small: Eichmann Connectors 28 

Eichmann’s Rob Woodland explains to UHF why 

most connectors contain too much metal. 

The Listening Room 

Making the Connection 30 

Do connectors change the sound of a cable? We 

compare three connectors on the same cables. 

Preview 53 

Amplifiers from Exposure, Rogue and Connoisseur, 

a universal player from Lexicon, and much more. 

Cinema 

Stories from the home theatre front 55 

TiVo versus the establishment, the end of a DVD 

copying program, and the fight over DVD’s 

successor. 

Software 

Requiem 56 

by Reine Lessard 

How Masses for the dead have brought comfort to 

the living 

Software Reviews 62 

by Reine Lessard and Gerard Rejskind 

Departments 

Editorial 2 

Feedback 5 

Free Advice 7 

Classified Ads 66 

Gossip & News 69 

State of the Art 72 

ULTRA HIGH FIDELITY Magazine 1

UHF Magazine No. 71 was published in December, 2004. 

All contents are copyright 2004 by Broadcast Canada. They 

may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form, or by any 

means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, 

recording, or any information storage or retrieval system, 

without written permission from the publisher. 

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PUBLISHER & EDITOR: Gerard Rejskind 

ASSOCIATE EDITOR: Reine Lessard 

EDITORIAL: Paul Bergman, Reine Lessard, Albert Simon 

PHOTOGRAPHY: Albert Simon 

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Editorial 

SACD vs DVD-A 

Did we stir up a hornet’s nest by declaring a winner in the battle (How 

SACD Won the War, in UHF No. 70)! We got a number of reactions, not all of 

them courteous. You’ll see a few of them in the Feedback section of this issue. 

Beyond the usual letters to the editor, there has been considerable discussion 

of the article on the Internet. 

A number of people have taken us to task because they believe that pulsecode 

modulation, the encoding system used by DVD-Audio (and Red Book 

CD too, of course) is superior to Direct Stream Digital, the less-familiar 

method used for Sony master recordings and for SACD. But at no time did we 

claim that SACD was better than DVD-A, only that it was a better-designed 

system, and therefore could survive, whereas DVD-A cannot. 

That is of course a prediction, and we are all too aware of the ways predictions 

can go wrong. The fact is, however, that we were convinced from the 

first that the very existence of these competing systems was choking both of 

them off. And we were telling readers that, if it were our money, we wouldn’t 

buy either system until we knew which would win. We believe the time has 

come to choose, and the rational choice is SACD. 

Of course, failed systems don’t necessarily vanish. There are still user groups 

and underground support resources for old computers like the Apple II, the 

Amiga and the Newton, and for supposedly dead formats like the Elcaset and 

(yes!) Betamax. Similarly, some producers will continue to make DVD-Audio 

recordings. They will claim that those recordings are superior to SACD, and 

perhaps they are right. However I don't think they’ll have any luck getting 

their products into record stores. 

As I’ve said before, one thing I learned from our original publisher, Michel 

Prin, is that the magazine must always have a point of view. Of course that 

point of view must not be selected at random, but it is important that we take a 

stand whenever it is appropriate, in order to help you make the right purchasing 

choices. 

That is our mission, and I’m not about to apologize for it. 

Measuring loudspeakers 

You can’t measure speakers without a good microphone, and we’ve just 

gotten in a pair of really good ones: model QTC1 from Earthworks. We 

became aware of these microphones because they are used extensively by one 

of our favorite classical record companies, Analekta (see The People Behind the 

New Sound of Analekta in UHF No. 54). The QTC1 goes out to 40 kHz, and 

has variations that stay well within a ±1 dB envelope. Just the ticket! 

But we’ve made some other changes too. At one time we had been reluctant 

to show any speaker frequency response data, because our method gave a 

much less “pretty” graph than that of most of our competitors, and that could 

lead to unfair comparisons. Since then, we’ve gone overboard the other way, 

reproducing raw graphs. The huge variations look rather disconcerting, and 

tend to mask much more meaningful variations. 

The response graphs we will use from now on show averaged results in 

bands a third of an octave wide. I think you’ll be able to figure them out more 

easily…and so will we! 

2 ULTRA HIGH FIDELITY Magazine

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It makes sense if you think about it. Where do copies 

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other people leaf through them before you arrive? At 

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Surprise! At a lot of newsstands, they do exactly that! 

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Feedback 

Although I have enjoyed your magazine, 

and found it helpful, I will not be 

renewing my subscription for a variety 

of reasons, and I thought you would like 

to know. 

I like the way you review equipment, 

with all three of you sitting in at once. 

However it is a little difficult to discern if 

your sonic preferences differ at all, therefore 

often making two of you redundant. 

A statement of sonic preferences would 

be helpful, and if you all listen for the 

same thing, get some alternative listeners. 

I like your general source-down 

philosophy. 

I think your Free Advice is a good idea, 

but (by necessity) it needs to be so brief 

I think most inquirers would be better 

served if they paid for it, and got a more 

complete statement. 

I find your feature articles always 

lacking. They are good, but incomplete, 

a novel without a last chapter. I almost 

always feel you were not knowledgeable 

enough to do a thorough job. 

A most irritating aspect of your writing 

is a pervasive attitude that you and 

your ears are right and the rest of the 

world (and audio press) is somehow lost 

in wonderland. Maybe you have been 

hearing how great you are from so many 

people that it has gone to your head. 

As a physics teacher, I realize that you 

don’t know it all, as I have found errors 

in your magazine and books. Nothing 

earth-shattering, but they shake my 

confidence in you. 

You, like all audio rags, are stuck in a 

rut as to the equipment you review. I got 

really tired of all the Chinese tube amps 

you were fascinated with for a while. 

Having shared this with you, (because 

I believe you care what readers think), 

I am not oblivious to the problems that 

publishers face, and the difficulties of 

a fickle market that in essence says, 

“why didn’t you review $1000 preamps 

Feedback 


Longueuil, Québec, Canada J4K 5J4 

uhfmail@uhfmag.com 

this month, because that is what I was 

shopping for?” I don’t believe you will/ 

should change your editorial personality, 

because the arrogance you display got 

you where you are. I think that fleshing 

out your articles some would be of real 

help to your readers. 

I will probably check you out online, 

or purchase more stuff from your audio 

store, but I will have to do it without the 

benefit of the hard copy. So ever onward, 

and best of success for you. 

John Loveless 

HILLSDALE, MI 

I very much enjoyed reading your 

comparison in UHF No. 70 of the 

screen technologies available for home 

theatre systems, the discussion of the 

SACD/DVD-A format war and the Linn 

Unidisk 1.1 review. Here’s my two cents 

on these topics. 

First, I was puzzled by the statement 

that no LCOS screens are available today 

for home use. This should perhaps read 

not available in Canada — Philips claims 

to use LCOS technology in their Cineos 

line of widescreen TVs. The 55” model 

lists at US$ 4,000 and a quick Google 

search finds Internet retailers offering 

it for about US$3,000. This is less than 

plasma, and it is competitive with LCD 

and DLP technology. 

On the question of SACD vs DVD-A, 

I think it’s premature to declare SACD 

the winner. Sony scored a hit with the 

hybrid disc concept, but the DVD-A 

camp seems to be belatedly waking up 

to the necessity of backward-compatible 

discs with their DualDisc. What keeps 

me from declaring either side victorious 

is that neither seems to have grasped the 

lesson of the Beta-VHS battle, namely 

that victory will go to the party that 

successfully floods the market with 

inexpensive hardware and software. 

Finally, while I was very impressed 

with the Linn Unidisk 1.1 at this year’s 

Festival Son et Image, I’m not yet convinced 

that the dream of a universal 

player has been practically realized. 

C$16,000 is out of reach for all but the 

most affluent, and even the “less expensive” 

Unidisk 2.1 or SC models cost what 

most audiophiles have invested in their 

entire system. I don’t think that music 

lovers of modest means (and isn’t that 

most of us?) can really consider it safe 

to do a major source upgrade until there 

are universal players below C$5,000 and 

C$3,000 price points that do a credible 

job of reproducing Red Book CD, 

DVD-A and SACD. You can see why 

I’m looking forward to the reviews of 

the McCormack and Lexicon universal 

players slated for UHF No. 71! 

John Schmidt 

ÎLE-BIZARD, QC 

I can only say that I disagree with you 

completely on what you wrote in issue 

No. 70. If you try to compare DVD-A 

and SACD you will discover that DVD-A 

is by far the better medium soundwise. 

Everybody in the business, from audio 

critics to audiophiles, is experiencing the 

same quality difference between the two 

formats. SACD is a laugh when it comes 

to the quality of the sound. 

I am fortunate that I have a very good 

high end system. I have, together with 

other experienced music lovers and listeners, 

compared directly the differences 

between DVD-A and SACD (yes, it’s 

possible!!). There is absolutely no doubt 

that DVD-A is so much better. I am only 

talking about two-channel reproduction 

of music here. Multichannel has nothing 

to do with high end audio if the aim 

is to create a truthful reproduction of 

recorded music. If you cannot, as a result 

of the standard and quality of your reference 

system, hear this difference, I think 

you have a problem. 

Further, I find it totally ignorant 

that you declare a “winner” when all the 

other high end magazines, such as TAS 

and Stereophile, have an open mind about 

this issue. I like the concept of an open 

mind instead of the ideas that your magazine 

publish. Just read Robert Harley’s 

editorial in the latest issue of TAS. Keep 

an open mind, it is always the best way 

to make a magazine interesting. 

My subscription ends with issue 


Feedback 

No. 71. I will not renew it, because I find 

your magazine simply not good enough 

by any standard. In my opinion you are 

concentrating your reviews only on a 

handful of manufacturers, your show 

reports in the latest issue were a joke 

(two pages from each show!), and you 

give advice and recommend equipment 

to your readers. In my opinion this is not 

what an objective magazine should do. 

I am sure that you will manage without 

my subscription. I hope you will print 

this in issue No. 71 so that you can start 

a debate on these issues. 

Jan Petter Egidius 

ASKER, Norway 

Jan, to paraphrase the robot voices on voice 

mail systems, “your subscription is important 

to us.” However we would consider it even 

more important if we could see evidence that 

you actually read what we write. In issue 

No. 70, “two pages from each show” was 

actually five pages from just one show. 

Wow! Those are quite the definitive 

statements you have been making 

regarding SACD versus DVD-A: (issues 

No. 67 and 70): “The war is over,”; 

“DVD-A is Betamax,”; “How DVD-A 

blew it big time.” Well yes, I think 

they may have too, however I have no 

particular allegiance. They can both 

sound wonderful, or they can sound 

lousy (whatever works, eh?). 

6 ULTRA HIGH FIDELITY Magazine 

This is part of an e-mail to me from 

Neil Wilkes, proprietor of Opus Productions 

in the UK: 

We have been very busy lately, and have 

recently got out a couple of DVD-A masters, 

at last, which should be getting the OK from 

the band’s label and management very soon. 

Then I will be clear of the non-disclosure 

agreement I’m currently under and will be 

able to share what and who it is. I’ll be happy 

to look at this magazine (UHF) and also try 

to point out to the editor just why I think 

that DVD-A is way superior to SACD, the 

DSP/PCM arguments notwithstanding. 

I hope he responds to you. And I 

simply adore UHF Magazine — always 

have, always will. 

Mike Bennett 

HALIFAX, NS 

Just wanted to say I was a bit disappointed 

in reading the Reference 3a 

Royal Virtuoso review (UHF No. 70). I 

own the Royal Master, and was hoping 

for more of a direct comparison, but did 

not find much of that. 

Dave Ruel 

ORLEANS, ON 

The Royal Virtuoso is a successor to the 

Royal Master, which we also liked a great 

deal, and it is a cousin of the Suprema II 

used in our Omega reference system. 

I have been reading your magazine 

for many years. I know how difficult it 

is to convince the non-initiated to spend 

more money on a good system that they 

would on a mass market one. Besides 

the obvious superior sound, there is 

another aspect they should be aware of, 

namely the good service offered by the 

audiophile companies. 

I bought a Simaudio W-5 amplifier 

a few years back in Chile. One of the 

amplifier channels blew up three years 

later and I had to return the equipment 

to Simaudio for repairs. They serviced 

the equipment at no charge and even 

changed the power supply to work on 

the 220 V power of the Chilean grid. 

Unfortunately, the amplifier suffered 

another breakdown, this one minor, last 

year. Before doing the repair, Simaudio 

took the trouble to contact the speaker 

manufacturer to ensure compatibility 

with the amplifier, and they made 

changes to the amplifier circuits to make 

it more stable under the difficult load 

presented by the speaker. This is not 

the service you would get from a mass 

market manufacturer. 

Richard Proulx 

SANTIAGO, Chile 

A note from Nicholas Wickenden of Edmonton, 

in a possibly recognizable format: 

Summing it up… 

Brand/model: UHF Magazine 

Price: C$50 for 13 issues 

Dimensions: 272 x 210 x 4 mm per 

issue 

Most liked: Straightforward appraisals 

of equipment, including differences 

of opinion where they occur 

Least liked: Inability to spell “metre” 

and its cognates properly 

Verdict: A must-read from cover to 

cover 

Thanks for making us smile. As a Canadian 

publication with a large US readership, 

we have a style guide that includes some 

Canadian usages (judgement, not judgment, 

and synthetizer not synthesizer), but also 

American usages (color, not colour). The 

spelling “meter” is dominant in Canada, 

despite its ambiguity: a meter is also an 

electrical instrument. It’s a difficult balance, 

but you could be right.

Free Advice 

Free Advice 


Longueuil, Québec, Canada J4K 5J4 

uhfmail@uhfmag.com 

I am a longtime reader of UHF. Very 

good magazine, hey! 

My system consists of a Teac VRDS T1 

drive and DT1 DAC, Copland CSA 28 

amplifier and KEF Ref 104.2 (old, I know). 

The CD cables are UltraLink Discovery and 

the speaker cables are Monster M-1. I’m 

using a Van den Hul “The Mainstream” 

power cord for the Copland. 

The speakers are old but I like their 

sound. They have a good bottom end a good 

mid too. Perhaps the sound is sibilant on high 

notes. It may be the recording, but I suspect 

the CD player. 

Fernand Fournier 

PALMAROLLE, QC 

So do we, Fernand. Assuming your 

speakers have weathered the years well 

and are not suffering from cracked 

tweeters or dried-out crossover capacitors, 

they could give you plenty more 

service, and they were not noted for 

excessive sibilance. Indeed, they could 

be your most valuable component. 

The Teac transport is superbly made, 

the converters are known for digging 

out astonishing amounts of background 

detail. Finesse in the highs? That's something 

else again. We have suspicions 

about your interconnect cable too. 

I need some professional advice. I have a 

5.1 channel home theatre system, an Integra, 

along with the CD and the DVD players. It’s 

not a Copland, but its not a home theatre in a 

box either. I also have a two-channel system, 

currently not in use, with a NAD 7600 

receiver. My speakers are not too bad either. 

I have the Energy Reference Connoisseurs 

and the PSB Stratus Golds, currently being 

used in the 5.1 system. 

I would like to know if I should keep the 

NAD 7600 and the PSB as a starter for 

a two-channel system, or use the Energy, 

which I really enjoy. I also would like a opinion 

on which would be a better two-channel 

speaker, the PSB or the Energy? 

Should I get rid of everything and get 

a really good 5.1 channel sound system, or 

should I keep some of it and just add? 

Brian Johnstone 

DELHI, ON 

Brian, you can probably already 

guess what we’re going to say about your 

Energy speakers, since we are also using 

that model in our Kappa home theatre 

system. Though it is getting a little 

long in the tooth, it was an astonishing 

product in its day, and it remains much 

better than what you might replace it 

with. We tell you this with no intention 

of demeaning the PSB Stratus Gold, 

which is no slouch either. 

The down side to the Energy is 

that it has been so long out of production 

that there is no matching centre 

speaker available. In our reviews in 

UHF No. 67, we found two speakers that 

matched well, the Thiel MCS1 (which 

we purchased), and the ProAc Response 

CC-Two. Neither is cheap, but both are 

worth what they cost. 

You may or may not choose to stay 

with the Integra components, though 

for the moment you possibly will. We 

don’t consider any receiver to be a path to 

maximum quality, however, and you may 

ultimately want to consider alternatives: 

either a high end preamp-processor 

(expensive but potentially excellent), or 

a freestanding processor for video sound 

matched to a high end preamplifier with 

the requisite six inputs. 

Planning the upgrade is a little like 

playing chess: you see where you are 

on the board, and you find a way to get 

where you want to be — with your opponent 

checkmated — in the minimum 

number of moves. More specifically, 

sketch out what your system should look 

like in three years, or five years, and see 

how you can get there with a minimum 

of wasted moves and the maximum 

number of improvement at each step. 

I am planning to built a stereo room in 

the basement of my new house. Is there a 

perfect size room, or are there certain sizes or 

forms I should keep away from? How about 

the material that should be use for the floor 

and the walls? Is there a math equation that 

could help me optimize the dimensions? 

An architect in Montreal wanted to 

charge me $2000 for just for a plan. And 

I was not asking for any fancy finish. I was 

already told by a few local contractors that 

they would not do this type of room, due to 

the special work that would involve. 

I feel the room is the most important 

component of the system. 

Basile Noël 

OTTAWA, ON 

The room really is very important, 

Basile. For those designing their own 

rooms, we would suggest reading the 

series of Paul Bergman’s series of articles 

on acoustics, published in UHF No. 30 

through 36. 

Having a competent architect handle 

the design may involve much less hassle, 

however, assuming you’ve selected someone 

with a solid grounding in acoustics, 

not just structures. It rather sounds 

to us as though your local contractors 

have gotten fat on the building boom, 

and can’t be bothered doing something 

they haven’t done before. Talk to your 

architect. Unless this is his very first 

acoustical project, which wouldn’t 

necessarily be good news, he will have 

worked with contractors for whom his 

plans don’t look like gibberish. 

I’ve been reading you since issue No. 15. 

Bravo for your magnificent work! 

I need advice on the purchase of a home 

theatre system. I have a Linn system, and so 

naturally I’m leaning toward that company 

for my next purchase. 

However a friend of mine says he doesn’t 

recommend buying a high end system. His 

reasoning, which seems logical to me, is as 

follows. He says the sound track of a DVD, 

unlike that of an audio CD, is highly compressed, 

since the picture takes up most of 

the space available. Consequently, a high 

performance system would probably not be 

able to give audio quality in line with the 


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cost. Of course he’s not suggesting I buy a 

low-end system, but he thinks audio units 

of more modest price (Rotel, etc.) would be 

quite adequate. It is also true that one might 

be less interested in subtleties of explosions 


in an action film than in those of a classical 

recording. 

Since I will be buying a ceiling-mounted 

projector (more costly than an ordinary TV), 

I don’t want to spend money for nothing on 

the audio side. I’m nonetheless open to other 

possibilities if the stakes are worthwhile. 

Jean Dufresne 

SHERBROOKE, QC 

Well, Jean, your friend appears to be 

one of our disciples. We have also always 

insisted on the quality of the source, 

and it is true that DVD sound is highly 

compressed, with limitations that even 

the best electronics cannot overcome. 

But…and there is always a “but.” 

The priority given the source cannot 

be absolute. If it were otherwise, you 

would constantly be upgrading your CD 

player or turntable, and you would never 

think about getting a better amplifier, let 

alone better speakers. 

Though Dolby Digital sound is not 

perfect, it will sound more or less good 

according to the quality of the downstream 

system. Also, remember that 

some DVDs have an alternative DTS 

soundtrack, which is less compressed 

and usually sounds better. 

Since you’ve been reading us so 

long, you’ll understand the following 

comparison. Think back to a time 

when all phono pickups were made with 

elliptical stylii and high inductance 

coils unable to reproduce high frequencies 

plausibly. Despite those important 

source problems, it was possible to get 

great improvements by selecting a high 

performance amplifier or superior speakers. 

Moderately-priced electronics (in a 

relative sense at least), such as those from 

Rotel, offer a good quality/price ratio, 

and their performance can certainly be 

satisfactory. Can better units outperform 

them? Yes, no doubt, but we suggest 

listening for yourself. Does your Linn 

dealer have a home theatre demo room? 

You may want to spend a bit of time 

there, to see for yourself. And especially 

to listen for yourself. 

I have a Naim 3.5 CS player with a 

Flat Cap power supply, a Conrad-Johnson 

Premier 14 preamp combined with a Mark 

Levinson 23.5 amplifier, and a pair of 

Energy Veritas 1.8 speakers. None of these 

was selected for the current house I have. 

(Eight moves in 17 years says it all). 

Turns out the Veritas are a little 

overwhelming in the bass area in my large 

living/dining room. This fact, combined with 

a very positive previous experience with a 

pair of the original Aerius from the other 

“ML” manufacturer (Martin-Logan, that 

is), is driving me back to flat speakers, one of 

which I have recently auditioned, the Magnepan 

1.6. Curiously, I do not remember 

any review from your magazine on those. 

The American mags have a good word on 

the 3.6, but their size do not make them a 

favorable choice for my current environment 

(I’ll maybe have better luck on my next 

relocation). 

Still what’s your insight on that technology 

and that specific model? 

Would there be a benefit in trading 

the C-J for a Naim preamp, based on a 

hypothetical manufacturer design integration 

with the CD player, or is this a case of 

“if there’s nothing wrong with it, leave it 

alone”? 

Benoît Labelle 

HULL, QC 

Since we would expect very good 

results from both the Conrad-Johnson 

and the Naim, we probably wouldn’t 

try to fix what ain’t broke, Benoît. It’s 

possible you would prefer the Naim 

to the C-J, but equipment swaps are

Free Advice 

inevitably costly, and we wouldn’t do it 

without a reason. In general, mixing and 

matching brands presents no problem, 

though some manufacturers may have 

understandable reasons for suggesting 

otherwise. 

Some years ago we had an opportunity 

to review Magneplanars, but 

back then our Alpha reference system, 

which is in a small room, was our only 

system, and fitting large planar speakers 

into it was out of the question. We 

did review the Martin-Logan Aerius in 

that room (UHF No. 39), but even that 

was a stretch. We have of course heard 

several Magneplanar models under good 

conditions. They offer both advantages 

and drawbacks, like all other speakers, 

and their fan club rivals that of Star 

Trek in its enthusiasm. In the right room 

you might be really pleased with them. 

However, unless your series of moves is 

at an end (they say three moves equals 

one fire), you may want to choose speakers 

that will work well with any size and 

configuration of room. 

By the way, our experience with larger 

Energy Veritas speakers is that the way 

they are built allows them to feed a lot 

of low-frequency energy into the floor, 

which unfortunately doesn’t vanish…it 

returns to add a rather ugly bottomend 

signature to the music. When we 

reviewed the Veritas v2.8 in UHF No. 53, 

we found a major improvement when we 

put them up on Tenderfoot cones rather 

than the spikes supplied. 

I have read and enjoyed your review of 

the Foundation Research LC-2 line conditioner 

(UHF No. 58). I understand you 

have adopted it as a component, connecting it 

to the YBA power amp in one of the reference 

systems. 

The technical information on the LC-2 

states that it’s good for a Class AB power amp 

of 240 watts total (both channels) maximum. 

FR also states it can deliver current somewhere 

in the area of 20 amps. Have you ever 

connected it to a more powerful amp, like the 

W-5? If so, did it restrict dynamics? 

I heard through the grapevine that Ed 

Wolkow is developing an LC-3 for the largest 

amps. Have you heard anything about 

this? 

Ed Wong 

VANCOUVER, BC 

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Our LC-2 works well with our YBA 

One, Ed, but we have heard it sound 

much less good with some large amplifiers, 

especially tube amplifiers. The 

LC-3 never did reach production, and 

has reportedly been replaced on the 

drawing board by the LC-100, which 

uses different technology. 

My system consists of a Rega Planet 

2000, Linn Pre-Tek, Bryston 3B (original, 

but it just came back from Bryston last 

year with all new insides: caps, outputs 

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transformer, etc.), Paradigm Studio 40 

v.2 speakers, and a Monster Power 2600 

with high quality interconnects and speaker 

cables. 

About two years ago I wrote you and 

asked for some advice about my system being 

a little uninvolving, and asking for help. I 

appreciated the help you gave me, and ended 

up buying a Rega Planet, and finding my 

amplification for a good deal on the used 

market. 

If I could never upgrade again I would 

find it livable, but like all other audio 


Free Advice 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

nuts/music lovers, I am wanting to be closer 

to the music. Currently I find the system a 

little forced and strained. I know my Rega 

has more to offer than what I am hearing, 

so I am looking at my speakers and amps. I 

was hoping that you could help me out and 

tell me your initial thoughts on the Totem 

Rainmakers. 

Two major bonuses of the Rainmakers 

are that they are very affordable, and seeing 

as my current stands are already filled with 

shot (and too heavy to ship), I can use them 

for some additional savings. 

Also the Rainmakers are relatively easy 

to drive (compared to the Hawks and Model 

One), which means I can sell my current 

amplification and buy a high quality lowerpowered 

integrated instead of spending a 

small fortune on high-quality, high-powered 

separates. I was thinking of the Bryston B60, 

Simaudio I-3 and Plinius 8200, or even a 

YBA Intégré. 

I am really just trying to get closer to 

the music and feel what the artist is trying 

to relate. Whatever speaker I choose needs 

to have life emanating from it. When I am 

listening to someone singing, I would like it to 


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

59 REGINA ST. N. 

WATERLOO, ONTARIO N2J 3A6 

(519) 885-4750 

sound like the singer is in the same room with 

me, and the same goes for instruments. 

Nick Way 

CRANBROOK, BC 

The Rainmaker is indeed reviewed in 

this issue, Nick. This is an inexpensive 

speaker, possibly destined to replace the 

Totem Rokk, which has always left us a 

little cool. 

We’re pleased to say that the Rainmaker 

is much more “Totem-like” than 

the Rokk, and we do mean that as a 

compliment. However we would point 

out that Totem has other speakers that 

could be driven fairly easily, including 

the Arro and the Sttaf. Both cost more 

than the Rainmaker. They don’t need 

stands, but you’ve got them. 

I have an older (used, mid 80’s?) Rega 

Planar 3 turntable with RB300 arm. The 

RB300 had the bearings replaced by Rega 

about 12 years ago. At that time I also had 

a Rega Elys cartridge installed. Recently I 

found the cartridge seemed to be riding low, 

and was told by a Rega dealer technician that 

the cantilever mount was at fault. 

I had a Shure Me95ED cartridge, which 

I installed with a new stylus sourced from 

new Shure stock. It sounds fine to me. 

A friend of mine gave me his Sony PS- 

X40 turntable which he bought with a Shure 

V15 Type III mounted. The original stylus is 

damaged. A new stock stylus from Shure will 

cost about $150 plus tax. It is the VN35MR 

Microridge, which turns out to be an upgrade 

from the original hyperelliptical stylus. 

This is still quite an investment for an 

old cartridge. Do you think that the V15 

Type III will mate well with the RB300 (will 

shims be needed, etc.)? Would I be better off 

investing in a newer cartridge (the Audio 

Technica 440ML could be had for about the 

same price as the Shure stylus), or is the V15 

Type III worth keeping? It must have been a 

good cartridge for Shure to keep manufacturing 

replacement styli for so long. 

Keith Tombs 

LADYSMITH, BC 

Keith, the V15, in its various incarnations, 

has long been Shure’s top phono 

cartridge. It had advantages that were 

difficult to beat: though its stated list 

price was high, its street price could be 

surprisingly low, and it was initially alone 

among affordable cartridges in having a 

line contact stylus, offering better tracking 

and lower noise than a conventional 

elliptical stylus. 

However the V-15, right through 

version IV, shared a major flaw with 

most moving magnet pickups of the 

day: its high inductance limited its high 

frequency response, and the extreme 

highs you could hear were the product 

of resonances in the cantilever. It was 

only with version V, released 20 years 

ago, that more powerful neodynium 

magnets allowed Shure to reduce coil 

size and reproduce highs in natural fashion. 

We wouldn’t spend $150 on a stylus 

for version III. The Audio-Technica 

440ML is a much more modern pickup 

and includes a line contact stylus. 

It’s possible that you’ll need to add 

spacers to your Rega arm, but it’s worth 

the trouble. 

I have asked advice before and you have 

been very helpful with my selection of a YBA 

DT Intégré. I am very happy with this amp, 

which just never seems to run out of steam.

Free Advice 

I now want to turn my attention to my 

digital source. I have a multitude of boxes 

which make it up. The transport is a Cambridge 

CD4, the DAC is a heavily modded 

MSB Link DAC III with a Monolithic 

high current power supply, and I also have 

a Monarchy Audio 24/96 upsampler unit 

feeding the MSB Link. 

I have auditioned many one-box players 

in the sub-$2K Canadian range, but I have 

yet to find one that offers anything better 

than my current setup. I recall listening to 

the Audio Aero Prima, and I was impressed 

with its “wall of sound” effect. I find that 

most CD players I have auditioned offer a 

good centre (2-D) soundstage, but I haven’t 

found one yet that offers the side-to-side and 

front-to-back 3-D soundstage. 

Dan Fillion 

HAMILTON ON 

Well, Dan, there are people who 

would say your three-brand player is a bit 

of a kluge, and it’s certain that lots can 

go wrong in a complex setup. However 

you’ve spent some money on it, and by 

what you say it works pretty well. Should 

we be surprised that at least some $2000 

player can’t match it? 

Fortunately, the sort of quality we’ve 

associated with very high end players has 

found its way down into prices that don’t 

result in foreclosure on your mortgage. 

We’ve said good things about affordable 

players from Creek, Vecteur and Rega, 

to name only three. One of these might 

match your present player. Whether 

one of them might actually be better is 

something you’ll have to discover. 

Your Your shortlist… shortlist… 

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I recently purchased the Cambridge 

Audio Azur 640A integrated amp and 

640C CD player (using an Atlas Equator 

interconnect), and paired them with the 

Quad 11L bookshelf speakers. I am fortunate 

to have a dedicated music room — 10 

x 12 feet in size — with plaster walls and 

hardwood floors. 

I absolutely loved the sound of the system 

at the store. Unfortunately, in my room the 

new system sounds harsh, especially at higher 

volume levels. I suspect that part of the problem 

is the size of the room and the abundance 

of hard surfaces. Any recommendations on 

warming up the sound? 

J.S. Haick 

TORONTO, ON 

www.europroducts-canada.com 

Well, we think at least one of your 

suspicions is correct: the abundance of 

hard surfaces is playing hob with the 

sound. (Did you ever play hob? It’s even 

tougher than quidditch, though possibly 

less dangerous.) Of course your room’s 

tiny dimensions are also causing some 

problems, especially at lower frequencies, 

with standing wave frequencies 

tending to bunch up, but the harshness 

is at the other end of the spectrum. 

Solving this problem is a process 

that defies summarizing, and we would 

recommend Paul Bergman’s acoustics 

series in UHF No. 30 through 36, as well 

as the acoustics chapter in our book, The 

World of High Fidelity. Still, perhaps we 

can make some suggestions. 

The hard surfaces in your room are 

allowing high frequency sound waves to 

bounce off with little attenuation, and 

to make hundreds, possibly thousands, 

of trips across the room before dying 

out. The result is that the sound seems 


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to be coming from multiple sources, 

and — worse yet — it keeps right on 

coming, smearing the music. It seems 

evident that adding soft surfaces, such 

as carpets and curtains, will reduce 

the number of bounces somewhat, but 

some of these additions will attenuate 

high frequency reverberation without 

having much effect on lower frequencies, 

including the midrange. The midrange 

is of course where most of the music is 

found. 

A thick carpet with a thick natural 

fibre underlay can do a lot. So can heavy 

drapes, with lots of folds, hung behind 

the speakers a few centimeters out from 

the rear wall. 

That’s only a start, but it’s where we 

would begin. 

Griffin Audio 

Box 733, Montreal, QC H4A 3S2 

Tel. (514) 945-8245 FAX: (514) 221-2247 

griffinaudio@cs.com proac-loudspeakers.com 

I own a Linn Basik turntable with an 

Akito arm. Recently the arm refuses to play 

to the end of some of my albums. It just sticks 

there towards the end of the last song. I have 

made sure that the setup is correct and that 

the turntable is level. Do you have any suggestions? 

I enjoy reading your magazine. 

Jan Palmer 

QUISPAMSIS, NB 


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Free Advice 

I enjoyed reading your review of a pair 

of speakers I own, the Castle Inversion 15’s. 

I use an Arcam 10 integrated amp/preamp 

with them and an Arcam CD player. These 

speakers and the Arcam are a beautiful 

match, very musical and a perfect joy to listen 

to. 

However, there has been a lack of a 

sturdy low frequency foundation and power 

to much of the programming. There are 

individual recordings where this seems not 

so distracting, but I find myself increasingly 

unsatisfied by the status quo. The Arcam 

has no tone controls, so solutions will have to 

come through a better CD player or a speaker 

change. The Arcam CD is middle of the road 

at best but still a decent player. I will probably 

get a more sophisticated unit at some point 

anyway, so I am focused on the speakers for 

now. 

I am looking, therefore, at adding a 

Vandersteen 2Wq powered subwoofer to the 

system. What do you think of this idea? I 

want to have it blend seamlessly with the 

current setup, or it won’t be worth it. I spoke 

with Mr.. Vandersteen and he thought that 

the 16 cm woofer in the Castle would work 

well with his 2Wq subwoofer, although he 

is in general not impressed with two-way 

speaker systems and their midrange capabilities. 

I have heard several two-way designs 

that are great, those of Linn for example, 


This is a really easy one, Jan. and so I have to disagree with him, at least circuit, but it is dedicated to these two. I have 

Like most tone arms, the Akito is not from my subjective experience. 

tried floating the grounds. 

designed to rotate 360 degrees, but only I just hate to think about using a different 

Chris Barnsley 

Discover classical music 

far enough to travel from the arm rest to speaker, and, judging from your review you 

HAMILTON, ON 

the outer edge of the record label. What might be loath to give them up as well. 

You’ve wondered whether you should, finally, find out what’s so enjoyable about 

has happened is that the entire arm post By the way, I think your Web site is the Chris, normally we would trot out a 

Mozart, Beethoven, Vivaldi, and all those other composers celebrated years and 

has been turned counterclockwise, so best I have seen for my hi-fi interests. number of suggestions, but since you’ve 

even centuries after their death? But you didn’t know where to start? 

that the arm reaches the end of its travel 

Grant Fergeson tried them all you’re saved us the trouble. 

This collection of 50 gold audiophile CDs of European artists is how to build 

before getting all the way over to the end 

CORPUS CHRISTI, TX As Sherlock Holmes would say, once you 

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of the final track. 

have eliminated all of the obvious possibilities, 

the one that remains, no matter 

Please understand, these aren't old mono transfers by fourth rate artists. All 

Here’s how to fix it. Around the arm We also disagree with Richard 

of these recordings are in natural stereo, and includes some of the world’s most 

base are two screws that hold the arm in Vandersteen concerning two-way speakers, 

Grant, because we are all too aware And the possibility that remains is a 

how outlandish, must be the correct one. 

celebrated artists, from England, Austria and other European countries. 

place. You’ll need an Allen (hexagonal) 

And we’re not talking about mere excerpts, what some critics refer to sacrcastically 

as “one hundred musical orgasms.” These are complete works. Want 

key to loosen them. Before you do, put a of the sonic damage caused by complex gross level mismatch between the Audio 

pencil line along the arm pillar where it crossover networks (we have the greatest 

respect for Richard’s own work, For anyone reading this who is not 

Aero and the Simaudio. 

to hear Beethoven’s monumental 9th Symphony? All four movements are here. 

goes into the base, so that you can set the 

Want Vivaldi’s four Seasons. All four concertos are here, complete. 

arm to the same height (we’re assuming however). 

familiar with the components in question, 

some explanation is required. 

The whole collection is just $199.95 (Canadian), exclusive from UHF’s 

the height is correct in the first place). There’s a good reason your Arcam 

Audiophile Store. 

Rotate the arm slightly clockwise, so that amplifier has no tone controls: we consider 

such controls to be distortion gen- 

Unlike most CD players, the Capitole 

Hear samples on line. Or order the 69 minute sampler CD for $10, and get a 

it is free to travel all the way to the label 

$10 credit if you decide to get the whole set. 

edge. And then tighten those screws so 

And you will. 

they are really firm. We’d bet they were 

a bit loose to start with, and that’s how 

your arm got turned. 

erators, and we look with suspicion on 

any amplifier designer who thinks they 

are a good idea. Though an upscale CD 

player may well give you a more solid and 

extended bottom end, there’s not much 

to be done to extend the low-end extension 

of the small Castle Inversions. Oh... 

except what you suggest: a subwoofer. 

The Vandersteen sub is probably a 

good choice. Years ago, in UHF No. 23, 

we successfully matched one to a pair 

of Quad ESL-63 electrostatic speakers, 

a major challenge. We’re not sure the 

Vandersteen would be the best option for 

a home theatre system that needs major 

kicking power, but its gentle and subtle 

work is a good choice for a music system 

such as yours. 

I have an Audio Aero Capitole MkII 

CD player running directly to my Simaudio 

I-5’s amp section, bypassing the Simaudio’s 

internal preamp. 

I’m getting a very slight hum from the 

speakers when run this way. I’m told that 

Audio Aero and Simaudio inherently have 

this problem when run together in this mode. 

I’ve tried switching cables, the Audio Aero 

dealer has tried various grounding options, 

and I have very good power conditioning on 

a dedicated line. I’m at a loss. When I use 

the Simaudio I-5 in normal integrated mode, 

there is no hum. 

There are no other components in the 

mix. Chassis-to-chassis ground has been 

tried. The cables are all Cardas. The player 

and amplifier are on the same electrical 

includes its own tube preamplifier. 

That’s why you don’t need your I-3’s own 

preamp section: you can feed the player 

directly to the power amplifier section 

of this integrated amp. 

Now here’s the problem. The player’s 

analog volume control is followed by a 

tube buffer stage. Tubes need not suffer 

excessively from hum, but since their 

hum level depends on the individual tube 

and not simply on the circuit design, it 

is not unusual for tubes to have detectable 

hum. On the other hand, Simaudio 

amplifiers have higher gain than most. 

This probably means that you can’t turn 

up the Capitole’s volume very high. 

When you run its volume control low, 

it sends a diminished music signal to the 

output. Any hum from the tube buffer 

won’t be diminished, however, since it 

originates after the volume control. 

There are only three possible cures. 

You can lower the gain of the Capitole’s 

buffer, you can lower the gain of 

the Simaudio’s amplifier stage, or you 

can get a pair of inline attenuators (a 

feedthrough plug that drops level by 

10 dB), such as the one from Rothwell 

Audio Products). The third solution 

is the only one that won’t require a 

technician and make your equipment 

impossible to resell. 

I feel pretty stupid as I write this, but I 

have done a stupid thing! 

Our CBC reception is pretty terrible 

through my receiver, so when I found an old 

set of bunny ears without a base, I thought

Free Advice 

I would use that as an antenna. I took the 

bunny ears and started waving them about 

to see if I could improve the reception. I 

accidently waved them across the speaker 

terminals on my speakers. Well, there was 

a loud pop, or amplified signal, that faded 

out as I pulled the plug on the amplifier, a 

Celeste 4150se. I thought I had blown the 

speaker, but I then plugged the speakers into 

the receiver, and verified that they are both 

working. Obviously there is an amplifier 

problem. 

Are you able to tell me what I have done? 

I must have shorted out the amplifier. Will I 

have caused major damage? Are amplifiers 

not protected against this kind of stupidity? 

Victor Curell 

TERRACE, BC 

There’s an old saying in electronic 

circles, Victor, sort of a variant on 

Murphy’s Law: during any electronic 

malfunction, a major component will 

always burn out in time to protect the 

fuse. 

Yes, the amplifier is supposed to be 

protected against short circuits, but 

Murphy supersedes all that. In our 

amplifier reviews, we often note that a 

unit is protected against short circuits 

by a fuse, breaker, or current-limiting 

circuit, but we never, ever test this out for 

ourselves. 

Oh…except when we do it inadvertently, 

just as you did. Don’t feel bad. It 

happens to us too. 

My existing setup: a dedicated electrical 

outlet, Creek 4140 s2 integrated amplifier, 

Cambridge CD500se CD player, Prisma 

interconnects, Audiostream speaker cables 

in and out of a Mirage BPS 100 gently set 

up to Camber 3.5 ti loudspeakers. 

Not the system of my dreams, but a 

warm and pleasant sound for almost all 

kinds of music (but definitely not the “nec 

plus ultra” for appreciating big orchestras). 

Of course I would like the music to expand 

out of the speakers with a little more sparkle 

and magic. 

What would be your suggestions for 

valuable and progressive upgrades? Is 

this system worth the investment of better 

interconnects and speaker cables, or should I 

keep it as it is? 

Pierre Vaillancourt 

LAVAL, QC 

Isoblue Naim Neat ProAc Rega 

Arcam Creek Crimson 

“Any sufficiently advanced technology is 

indistinguishable from magic” 

Sir Arthur C. Clarke 

hi fi fo fum 

The Goods 

Are 

Odd, 

But 

Your system is a basic one, Pierre, 

but you have a reasonable source, okay 

amp, and elderly but decent speakers. Of 

course you may at some point want to 

plan a (possibly gradual) upgrade, but we 

do think that at the moment your cables 

are the weak point. 

We know the Prisma interconnects 

well, since our own Audiophile Store 

sells them. Their main claim to fame: 

much better connectors than most 

economy cables, and a wonderful choice 

to replace free junk cords. As for Audiostream 

cables, it’s easy to do way better, 

and you should. Those two improvements 

will give you both the sparkle 

and an increased dose of magic, not to 

mention sound that is both warmer and 

more pleasant. 

When setting up loudspeakers in a 

room, isn’t it also important to make sure 

that either the distance to the side wall or the 

wall behind do not equal the distance from 

the woofer to the floor? 

John Tiong 

SIBU, Sarawak, Malaysia 

! 

The 

Odds 

Are 

Good 

935 Mount Pleasant Road 

Toronto 416-421-7552 

Ringmat Royd Visonik 

Cyrus Ecosse Eichmann Epos 

What an interesting question, John… 

if of course you meant it as a question! 

In the absolute you’re right, and that 

goes for a lot of other dimensions too, 

starting, naturally, with room dimensions. 

Distances of all sorts should, 

ideally, not be identical, nor should they 

be multiples of each other. Otherwise the 

standing waves will get reinforced. 

But it’s difficult to avoid some relationships, 

and in the case of the wooferto-floor 

distance, it may not be worth 

bothering about. At low frequencies, 

the woofer itself is not the only source 

of sound. Indeed, in some speakers the 

enclosure actually radiates more lowfrequency 

energy than the driver itself. 

If your speaker were an infinitely small 

point source, as the ideal loudspeaker 

would be, then it might be worth paying 

attention to its distance from floor and 

sidewalls. 

I recently purchased the Cambridge Audio 

A500 integrated amp and a D500SE CD 

player (using AR interconnects), and paired 

them with the Paradigm Monitor Series 


Free Advice 

Compact Monitor speakers. A Rega Planar 

3 completes my equipment. I absolutely 

loved the sound at first, but now I am not 

so sure about the speaker. I am using heavy 

gauge speaker wire and I am bi-wiring the 

system. 

What am I doing wrong ? Any recommendations? 

What would be the better choice 

of speakers for this system? The speakers 

seem dull, muted, not loud enough, maybe?? 

I don’t know… 

Stanko Botic 

WESTBANK, BC 

It does seem likely that your speakers 

are not up to the quality of your player 

and amplifier. You could certainly have 

done worse, buying one of those famous 

name hollow boxes that wouldn’t even 

stay together if it weren’t for the imitation 

wood veneer. Better speakers would 

be indicated, though of course which 

ones would depend on what budget you 

can free up. In general we don’t recommend 

making small upgrades, because 

trading equipment is always costly. 

But the cables could possibly use an 

upgrade too. Your AR interconnects 

might be one place to start. As for the 

“heavy gauge speaker wire,” we presume 

you are using some of the inexpensive 

generic speaker wire available from 

diverse sources. We’ve actually reviewed 

such cables, and they were the very worst 

we have ever heard. Your initial upgrade 

should definitely include them. 

I have a question regarding tube amp 

design and why certain tubes are only used 

in certain configurations. 

A friend recently purchased a Mastersound 

Due Venti 220 S.E. (single-ended) 

class-A, integrated amplifier that uses four 

EL34 tubes in a single-ended configuration. 

I had just purchased an EL34 tube integrated 

amplifier myself after listening to many 

different models from many manufactures, 

all of them push-pull designs. I eventually 

settled on the Audiomat Arpège Référence, 

considering it to be superior to all but the 

more expensive Audiomat amplifiers such as 

the Prélude Reference and the Opéra. 

When I took my amplifier over to my 

friend’s house to compare our respective 

choices, and secretly with the intention of 

trouncing his amplifier, I was astounded by 

what I heard. The sound from the Mastersound 

single-ended integrated was so lifelike 

and realistic that for the first time in all my 

years of listening seriously to audio equipment 

have I had the experience of thinking 

that the singer was actually in the room 

singing just for me. So realistic was the 

midrange of the single-ended amp that its 

reproduction of vocals was actually spooky. 

Now I understand why so many people 

pour so much money into their systems: to 

reach this benchmark. Moreover the highs, 

particularly with regard to the reproduction 

of the harp and violin, were just astounding. 

The single-ended designed only was bettered 

by the Arpège in terms of bass information, 

but not weight. 

I’m recounting this experience not to 

compare one manufacturer’s product against 

another’s, but to ask about amplifier design 

topology, independently of who is making the 

respective amps. I have owned single-ended 

amplifiers in the past that have used 300B 

tubes and heard ones that have used 845 

signal tubes, and both have traditionally 

sounded euphonic to me: too artificially warm 

and rounded. To the best of my knowledge, 

no one else other than Mastersound makes 

a single-ended amplifier using EL34 tubes. 

You can have it all 

in Toronto... 

Creek 

Cyrus 

DNM 

Epos 

Eichmann 

Isoblue 

Ringmat 

Soundcare 

Visonik 

But only at.... 

Hi Fi Fo Fum 

935 Mount Pleasant Road 

Toronto. M4P 2L7 

Tel: 416-421-7552 

www.hififofum.ca 


Free Advice 

Discover the Classics… 

at $4 per CD! 

It’s all here, with complete works, not mere excerpts: Mozart, Bach, Beethoven, 

Mendelssohn, Vivaldi, Bizet, Tchaikovsky, Gershwin…a complete classical library 

on 50 CDs, enough for a voyage of discovery. And these are gold discs, with good, 

sometimes top-grade, artists. And natural sound! 

See the complete list of contents, and even listen to on-line excerpts: 

www.uhfmag.com/discreviews/Classics.html 

This configuration seems like such a logical 

choice for a tube amplifier maker as I have 

long considered the EL34 tube to be the most 

musical tube available (and I know you do 

too). Proof of this seems to be vast number 

of companies that use the EL34 tube in 

push-pull designs. The tube is inexpensive, 

especially compared to 300B tubes. 

Why don’t other manufacturers use 

EL34’s in a single-ended configuration? Is 

there a drawback I am not aware of, as this 

design path seems just too good to be true? 

The Mastersound amp is said to use many 

of the same component parts as the higherend 

models, and my friend says he was told 

that it is sold as a loss leader. However, I 

know the Audiomat amps are designed with 

exquisite attention to detail and use superior 

parts as well. Hence, I’m attributing much 

of the difference in performance that I heard 

to the single-ended vs. push-pull design. I 

would love to know your thoughts. 

Rick Meyers 

VANCOUVER, BC 


Rick, there’s a good reason most 

makers of single-ended amplifiers use 

tubes such as the 300B and the 845, and 

at least one manufacturer uses a tube 

designed for the output stage of broadcast 

transmitters! Using one tube instead 

of two reduces the available power, for 

obvious reasons, and the higher harmonic 

distortion of a single-ended tube 

makes it inadvisable to squeeze every 

last milliwatt from it. A big tube gives 

you a fighting chance to get a non-trivial 

amount of power out of the amplifier. 

In the case of the Mastersound 

amplifier, there are two EL34 tubes 

in each channel, just as there would 

in a conventional amplifier, but they 

are simply paralleled instead of being 

arranged in the usual push-pull arrangement. 

Push-pull, which is used in nearly 

all amplifiers, both tube and transistor, 

provides a greater voltage swing and also 

cancels out some of the even-harmonic 

distortion. Mastersound has sacrificed 

this advantage, and has also sacrificed 

the lower harmonic distortion it could 

have obtained by using inverse feedback. 

Talk about playing with fire! 

But there is an advantage to singleended 

operation. That pair of EL34’s is 

amplifying all of the sound wave. In a 

push-pull amp, one of them would be 

amplifying the positive half of the wave 

and the other the negative half. It’s 

difficult to maintain perfect symmetry 

when the tubes cannot be perfectly 

identical. Push-pull is way superior to 

single-ended at high level, but may sound 

less good at very low level, when the 

asymmetry becomes more evident. 

By the way, using more than one 

output device in a single-ended configuration 

is also a compromise, but then life 

is full of compromises. 

I have a good CD player now (47 Lab) 

and I want to keep it, but would like also to 

have a good player for all SACDs and DVD- 

Audio . The Esoteric is quite pricy. 

Do you think such players will be more 

common in the future and come down in 

price? If so, when? 

Mark Garmaise 

TORONTO, ON 

It has already begun happening, 

Mark. It’s true that our own player, 

the Linn Unidisk 1.1 has come close 

to setting records in selling price, but 

at the same time other companies have 

brought out lower-cost universal players. 

One of them, the McCormack UDCP- 

1, is reviewed in the current issue. It is 

considerably cheaper than the Esoteric, 

and it is worthy of a good music system. 

There will be more universal players in 

the next year, as Linn licenses out its 

technology. 

Our own point of view is that one can 

now safely afford to ignore DVD-Audio 

in favor of SACD, and if you agree, that 

will considerably widen your possible 

choices. We are searching for affordable 

SACD players good enough to make the 

technology seem worthwhile. 

FREE ADVICE 

UHF MAGAZINE, Box 65085 

Longueuil, QC, Canada J4K 5J4 

OR ON LINE uhfmail@uhfmag.com

Nuts&Bolts 

Multichannel and Stereo 

Are two channels enough for 

musical reproduction? There 

has never been a consensus 

on this question, and there is 

not still today. Do you wish or need to 

be “surrounded” by music? Would you 

be if you were present at an actual music 

venue? Can a multichannel system truly 

simulate the sound of such a venue? 

That’s a lot of questions. I shall now 

set out in search of answers to at least 

some of them. 

It is common today to hear from 

stereo purists who believe that using 

more than two channels does not add to 

music listening, but actually takes away. 

A frequent adjunct to this claim is that , 

after all, we have just two ears. 

Whether that is relevant to the present 

question depends on interpretation 

of the nature of stereophonic sound 

itself. 

Binaural sound 

You don’t need a degree in the 

languages of Antiquity to know that 

“binaural” means two-eared. That said, 

where does “stereo” come in? 

The Greek word stereos means “solid,” 

or three-dimensional. In the 20th 

Century the word “stereo” first became 

popular in conjunction with stereoscopic 

photography. This is a typical stereo 

camera, made by Kodak in the 1950’s. 

by Paul Bergman 

The camera has two lenses and takes 

two photographs from slightly different 

points of view. You then arrange for the 

viewer’s left eye to see only the picture 

taken with the left lens, and the right eye 

to see only the picture taken with the 

right lens. The result is a 3-D illusion, 

and the impression of solidity. 

Could the same principle do wonders 

for sound? Of course. 

Instead of two lenses, we use two 

microphones. You could use unidirectional 

microphones spaced about 25 cm 

apart, like our two ears, then send one 

signal to the left ear and the other to the 

right ear. Such microphones do exist, 

and are sometimes even placed inside a 

dummy head. 

This two-eared approach, first 

developed in the 19th Century, is today 

called binaural sound. Its popularity 

was limited by the need to listen with 

headphones. I am, of course, aware that 

an entire couple of generations listen to 

music in that fashion, so binaural could 

be slated for a major return. 

Binaural sound can indeed sound 

“solid,” but many decades ago engineers 

set out to provide such 3-D sound with 

loudspeakers. The word “stereophonic” 

was applied to such multispeaker sound, 

though as we shall see it is not always 

appropriate. 

The birth of stereo 

You might be surprised to learn how 

old stereo actually is. In the early part of 

the last century, one enterprising company 

brought out two-channel versions 

of the cylinder phonograph, with two 

horns rather than one. Much of the pioneering 

work on modern stereophonic 

sound was carried out in the 1930’s by 

Bell Laboratories, a division of the then 

dominant US telephone company, which 

Is stereo slated for 

replacement? That 

depends on what you 

mean by stereo. 

would later invent the transistor and the 

Unix operating system. 

Early experiments actually date 

back to 1928, but in 1932 Bell Labs 

engineer Arthur C. Keller produced 

stereo recordings of the Philadelphia 

Orchestra, with an enthusiastic Leopold 

Stokowski conducting. The first 

recordings used two separate grooves, 

requiring two tone arms and cartridges 

to play them. Not long after, however, 

the lab produced stereo discs employing 

the 45-45 groove setup that would 

be adopted for the stereo LP nearly a 

quarter of a century later. 

The engineers at Bell Labs did not, 

however, consider two channels to be 

ideal, and by 1933 some of their experiments 

were done with three channels. 

Even this, I should add, was considered 

a compromise. Bell engineers thought 

that the ideal system would use an infinite 

number of microphones, with the 

sound from each reproduced by separate 

speakers, also infinite in number. This 

is, in my view, where the very concept 

of stereo began to shift and become 

something quite different. 

To be specific, the Bell engineers 

put the emphasis on the positioning of 

musical instruments. It can be supposed 

that with a hundred channels you could 

perfectly position each of the hundred 

instruments of a large symphony 

orchestra. If we wish to be a little more 

realistic, we could use three channels 

to reproduce groups of instruments in 

the correct position: violins at left, say, 

wind instruments in the centre, and 

violas and cellos at right. Attractive 

though this compromise then seemed, 

a three-channel system was ill-suited to 

a disc which had just two groove walls. 

Hence the modern state of stereo: much 

as we might prefer an infinite number of 

channels, we have had to settle for two. 

Let us, then, consider the gap that 

had opened up between binaural sound, 

the original “solid” sound, and the Bell 

Labs concept of stereo. 

In binaural, and in another interpretation 

of stereo, the analogy with 

stereoscopic photography had been 


Nuts&Bolts 

Get the whole article 

This fascinating article by Paul Bergman is the longest he has ever written for 

us. Read the whole thing in our print issue. 

preserved: the two microphones were 

picking up the same signal, but from a 

slightly different perspective. In the ideal 

Bell Labs version of stereo, the three 

channels did not carry the same material, 

save for inevitable leakage. 

In the two-channel version this was 

not quite true. Early stereo recordings 

were actually three-channel recordings, 

in recognition of the perceived necessity 

for a minimum of three channels 

to reproduce the spread of orchestral 

sound. The centre channel was added 

in equal parts, but at lower level, to the 

left and right channels. If the listener sat 

in the exact centre position between the 

two speakers, he might hear a “phantom” 

centre channel. 

Nonetheless, though “stereo” had 

been named using a word that implied a 

three-dimensional quality, the concept 

actually added only one dimension: 

width. 

In the same period, there was another, 

very different, concept of stereophonic 

sound. It was born far from Bell Laboratories, 

at the British recording company 

EMI. 

Blumlein stereo 

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Nuts&Bolts 

landit ad del incin vulputet augait am, 

conulput prat lor sim augait, susto el iure 

te molore. 














si. 

Virtual microphones 

A Blumlein stereo recording setup is 

o Ommy nibh essenia mconulputat am 













si. 














si. 














si. 

Multimicrophone stereo 














si. 






























consectem voleniam ipit prat in ut 



te molore 

Quadraphonic sound 















Nuts&Bolts 

si. 

























































































te molore 

Dolby Surround 














si. 

























aliquam, volummolor. 

True 5.1 channel surround 

Ommy nibh essenia mconulputat am

Nuts&Bolts 













si. 
























































































te molore. 












Nuts&Bolts 




si. 



















Building on Blumlein 

I have already mentioned that Alan 

Blumlein was aware that playing his 

coherent stereo recording through a pair 

of widely-spaced loudspeakers would not 


result in correct spatial reproduction. 

Over the years there have been attempts 

to bring speaker listening closer to binaural 

headphone listening. 

The main problem is that, with 

loudspeakers, each of our ears hears 

both channels, and not merely the right 

or left. One can minimize this channel 

“crosstalk” by listening in the nearfield, 

in other words from very close to the 

speakers. Listening in this fashion 

minimizes the contribution of room 

reverberation, which tends to diffuse 

the source of the sound. You can actually 

experience the effect by listening to a 

boombox from a couple of feet away. 

Other methods have been devised. 

Some years back JVC developed a system 

which greatly emphasized separation 

by cancelling out the channel mixing 

electronically. This was done by adding 

some of each channel to the other channel, 

but at lower level (-6 dB) and in 

reverse phase. The feeling of depth and 

spaciousness was greatly enhanced. 

Subsequently, a firm called QSound 

built on this idea by adding tailored 

out-of-phase signals to each channel. 

The early version of QSound was actually 

used to process some recordings, 

including one by Madonna. It turned 

out, however, that people listening in 

mono (on a non-stereo radio for example) 

were hearing something rather messy. 

The system was subsequently modified 

to improve mono compatibility. QSound 

today is used primarily on playback 

equipment, including mini-systems and 

computers. 

Is stereo dead? 














si. 



























































te molore

THE ANNIVERSARY COLLECTION: 

Issues No.7-19 (except 11, 15, 17 and 18, out of 

print): nine issues available for the price of five 

(see below). A piece of audio history. Available 

separately at the regular price. 

No.70: How SACD won the war…or how 

DVD-A blew it. Reviews: Linn Unidisk 1.1 universal 

player and Shanling SCD-T200 player. 

Speakers: Reference 3a Royal Virtuoso, 

Equation 25, Wilson Benesch Curve, preview 

of muRata super tweeters. Other reviews: 

Simaudio W-5LE amp, the iPod as an audiophile 

source. Plus: future video screens, the 

eternal music of George Gershwin, and two 

reports from Montréal 2004. 

No.69: Tube Electronics: Audiomat Opéra , 

Connoisseur SE-2 and Copland CSA29 integrated 

amps, and Shanling SP-80 monoblocks. 

Also: Audiomat's Phono-1.5, Creek CD50, as 

well as a great new remote control, GutWire's 

NotePad antivibration device, and a musicrelated 

computer game that had us laughing 

out loud. And there’s more: Paul Bergman on 

the return of the vacuum tube, the Vegas 2004 

report, and the story of how music critics did 

their best to kill the world’s greatest music. 

No.68: Loudspeakers: Thiel CS2.4, Focus 

Audio FS688, Iliad B1. Electronics:Vecteur 

I-6.2 and Audiomat Arpège integrated amplifiers, 

Copland 306 multichannel tube preamp, 

Rega Fono MC. Also: Audio Note and Copland 

CD players, GutWire MaxCon power filter. And 

there’s more: all about power supplies, what’s 

coming beyond DVD, and a chat with YBA’s 

Yves-Bernard André. 

No.67: Loudspeakers: A new, improved 

Reference 3a MM de Capo, and the awesome 

Living Voice Avatar OBX-R. Centre speakers 

for surround from Castle, JMLab, ProAc, Thiel, 

Totem and Vandersteen. One of them joins 

our Kappa system. Two multichannel amps 

from Copland and Vecteur. Plus: plans for a 

DIY platform for placing a centre speaker atop 

any TV set, Paul Bergman on the elements of 

acoustics, and women in country music. 

No.66: Reviews: the Jadis DA-30 amplifier, the 

Copland 305 tube preamp and 520 solid state 

amp. Plus: the amazing Shanling CD player, 

Castle Stirling speakers, and a remote control 

that tells you what to watch. Also: Bergman on 

biwiring and biamplification, singer Janis Ian’s 

alternative take on music downloading, and a 

chat with Opus 3’s Jan-Eric Persson. 

No.65: Back to Vinyl: setting up an analog 

system, reviews of Rega P9 turntable, and 

phono preamps from Rega, Musical Fidelity 

and Lehmann. The Kappa reference system 

for home theatre: how we selected our HDTV 

monitor, plus a review of the Moon Stellar DVD 

player. Anti-vibration: Atacama, Symposium, 

Golden Sound, Solid-Tech, Audioprism, 

Tenderfeet. Plus an interview with Rega’s 

turntable designer, and a look back at what 

UHF was like 20 years ago. 

No.64: Speakers: Totem M1 Signature and 

Hawk, Visonik E352. YBA Passion Intégré 

amp, Cambridge IsoMagic (followup), better 

batteries for audio-to-go. Plus: the truth about 

upsampling, an improvement to our LP cleaning 

machine, an interview with Ray Kimber. 

. 

No.63: Tube amps: ASL Leyla & Passion 

A11. Vecteur Espace speakers, 2 interconnects 

(Harmonic Technology Eichmann), 

5 speaker cables (Pierre Gabriel, vdH , 

Harmonic Technology, Eichmann), 4 power 

cords (Wireworld, Harmonic Technology, 

Eichmann, ESP). Plus: Paul Bergman on 

soundproofing, how to compare components 

in the store, big-screen TV’s to stay away 

from, a look back at the Beatles revolution. 

No.62: Amplifiers: Vecteur I- 4, Musical 

Fidelity Nu-Vista M3, Antique Sound Lab 

MG-S11DT. Passive preamps from Creek and 

Antique Sound Lab. Vecteur L-4 CD player. 

Interconnects: VdH Integration and Wireworld 

Soltice. Plus: the right to copy music, and how 

it may be vanishing. Choosing a DVD player by 

features. And all about music for the movies. 

No.61: Digital: Audiomat Tempo and Cambridge 

Isomagic DACs, Vecteur D -2 transpor t. 

Speakers: Osborn Mini Tower and Mirage OM- 

9. Soundcare Superspikes. And: new surround 

formats, dezoning DVD players. 

No.60: Speakers: Monitor Audio Silver 9, 

Reference 3a MM De Capo, Klipsch RB-5, 

Coincident Triumph Signature. Plus: a Mirage 

subwoofer and the Audiomat Solfège amp. Paul 

Bergman on reproducing extreme lows. 

No.59: CD players: Moon Eclipse, Linn Ikemi 

and Genki, Rega Jupiter/Io, Cambridge D500. 

Plus: Oskar Kithara speaker, with Heil tweeter. 

And: transferring LP to CD, the truth on digital 

radio, digital cinema vs MaxiVision 48. 

No.58: Amplifiers: ASL AQ1003, Passion I10 

& I11, Rogue 88, Jadis Orchestra Reference, 

Linar 250. Headphone amps: Creek, Antique 

Sound Lab, NVA, Audio Valve. Plus: Foundation 

Research LC-2 line filter, Gutwire power cord, 

Pierre Gabriel ML-1 2000 cable. And: building 

your own machine to clean LP’s. 

No.57: Speakers: Dynaudio Contour 1.3, 

Gershman X-1/SW-1, Coincident Super 

Triumph Signature, Castle Inversion 15, 

Oskar Aulos. PLUS: KR 18 tube amp. Music 

Revolution: the next 5 years. Give your Hi-Fi 

a Fall Tune-Up. 

No.56: Integrated amps: Simaudio I-5, Roksan 

Caspian, Myryad MI120, Vecteur Club 10, NVA 

AP10 Also: Cambridge T500 tuner, Totem 

Forest. Phono stages: Creek, Lehmann, 

Audiomat. Interconnects: Actinote, Van den 

Hul, Pierre Gabriel. Plus: Paul Bergman on 

power and current…why you need both 

No.55: CD players: Linn CD12, Copland 

CDA-289, Roksan Caspian, AMC CD8a. Other 

reviews: Enigma Oremus speaker, Magenta 

ADE-24 black box. Plus: the DSD challenge for 

the next audio disc, pirate music on the Net, the 

explosion of off-air video choices. 

No.54: Electronics: Creek A52se, Simaudio 

W-3 and W-5 amps. Copland CSA-303, Sima 

P-400 and F.T. Audio preamps (the latter two 

passive). Musical Fidelity X-DAC revisited, 

Ergo AMT phones, 4 line filters, 2 interconnects. 

Plus: Making your own CD’s. 

No.53: Loudspeakers:Reference 3a Intégrale, 

Energy Veritas v2.8, Epos ES30, Totem 

Shaman, Mirage 390is, Castle Eden. Plus: Paul 

Bergman on understanding biamping, biwiring, 

balanced lines, and more. 

No.52: CD player s: A lchemist Nexus, 

Cambridge CD6, YBA Intégré, Musical Fidelity 

X-DAC, Assemblage DAC-2. Subwoofers: 

Energy ES-8 and NHT PS-8. Plus: Paul 

Bergman on reproducing deep bass, Vegas 

report, and the story behind digital television. 

Back Issues 

No.51: Integrated amps: YBA Intégré DT, 

Alchemist Forseti, Primare A-20, NVA AP50 

Cambridge A1. CD players: Adcom GCD-750, 

Rega Planet. An economy system to recommend 

to friends, ATI 1505 5-channel amp, 

Bergman on impedance, why connectors 

matter, making your own power bars. 

No.50: CD: Cambridge DiscMagic/DACMagic, 

Primare D-20, Dynaco CDV Pro. Analog: Rega 

Planar 9, Linn LP12 after 25 years. Also: 

Moon preamp, Linn Linto phono stage, Ergo 

and Grado headphones. Speaker cables: 

Linn K-400, Sheffield, MIT 750 Also: 15 years 

of UHF. 

No.49: Power amps: Simaudio Moon, Bryston 

3B ST, N.E.W. DCA-33, plus the Alchemist 

Forseti amp and preamp, and the McCormack 

Micro components. Also: our new Reference 

3a Suprema II reference speakers, and a 

followup on the Copland 277 CD player. Plus: 

how HDCD really works. 

No.48: Loudspeakers: JMLabs Daline 3.1, 

Vandersteen 3a, Totem Tabù, Royd Minstrel. 

CD: Cambridge CD4, Copland CDA-277. Also: 

An interview with the founder of a Canadian 

audiophile record label. 

No.47: FM tuners: Magnum Dynalab MD-108, 

Audiolab 8000T, Fanfare FT-1. Speaker cables: 

QED Qudos, Wireworld Equinox and Eclipse, 

MIT MH-750. Parasound C/BD-2000 transport 

and D/AC-2000 converter. And: Upgrading 

your system for next to nothing. 

No.46: Electronics: Simaudio 4070SE amp & 

P-4002 preamp, Copland CTA-301 & CTA-505, 

N.E.W. P-3 preamp. Digital cables: Wireworld, 

Audiostream, MIT, XLO, Audioprism, and 

Wireworld’s box for comparing interconnects. 

Also: YBA CD-1 and Spécial CD players. Yves- 

Bernard André talks about about his blue diode 

CD improvement. 

No.45: Integrated amps: Copland CTA-401, 

Simaudio 4070i, Sugden Optima 140. CD: 

Adcom GDA-700 HDCD DAC, Sonic Frontiers 

SFD-1 MkII. Interconnects: Straight Wire 

Maestro, 3 versions of Wireworld Equinox. 

Plus: Yamamura Q15 CD oil, and “Hi-Fi for the 

Financially Challenged”. 

No.4 4: CD players: Rotel RCD970 BX, 

Counter point DA -10A DAC. Speakers: 

Apogee Ribbon Monitor, Totem Mite, more 

on the Gershman Avant Garde. Also: Laser- 

Link cable, “The Solution” CD treatment, 

AudioQuest sorbothane feet, Tenderfeet, 

Isobearings. Plus: Inside Subwoofers, and 

the castrati, the singers who gave their all 

for music. 

No.43: The first HDCD converter: the EAD 

DSP-1000 MkII. Speakers: Gershman Avant 

Garde, Totem Mani-2 and Rokk, Quad ESL- 

63 with Gradient subwoofer. Plus: Keith O. 

Johnson explains the road to HDCD, and our 

editor joins those of other magazines to discuss 

what’s hot in audio. 

No.42: Electronics: Spectral DMC-12 and 

Celeste P-4001 preamplifiers, amps and 

preamps from Duson. Also: Sonic Frontiers 

SFD-1 converter, power line filters from 

Audioprism, Chang, and YBA. Plus: Inside 

the preamplifier, and how the tango became 

the first “dirty” dance. 

No.41: Digital: Roksan DA-2, EAD DSP-7000, 

McCormack DAC-1, QED Ref. Digit. Cables: 

Straight Wire LSI Encore & Virtuoso, Wireworld 

Equinox, van den Hul The 2nd & Revelation, 

Cardas Cross & Hexlink Golden, Transparent 

Music-Link Super & Music-Wave Super. Plus: 

Bergman on recording stereo. 

No.40: Integrated amps: YBA Intégré, Rotel 

NOTE: Price rising in early 2005! 

960, Sugden A-25B, Sima PW-3000, Linn 

Majik, Naim NAIT 3, AMC CVT3030, Duson 

PA-75. Stereo: what it is, how it works, why 

it’s disappearing from records. 

No. 39: Speakers: KEF Q50, Martin-Logan 

Aerius, Castle Howard, NEAR 40M, Klipsch 

Kg4.2. Plus: QED passive preamps, followup 

on the Linn Mimik CD player. 

No. 38: CD players: Roksan Attessa, Naim 

CDS, Linn Mimik, Quad 67, Rotel 945, 

Micromega Model “T”. Plus: How the record 

industry will wipe out hi-fi, and why women 

have been erased from music history. 

No.37: Electronics: Celeste 4070 and McIntosh 

7150 amps, Linn Kairn and Klout. Plus: 

RoomTunes acoustic treatment, why all 

amps don’t sound alike, and how Pro Logic 

really works. 

No.36: CD players: YBA CD-2, Linn Karik/ 

Numerik, Sugden SDT-1, Mission DAD5 and 

DAC5, Audiolab 8000DAC, QED Digit, Nitty 

Gritty LP cleaner, Plus: an interview with 

Linn’s Ivor Tiefenbrun, and part 7 of Bergman 

on acoustics: building your own acoustical 

panels. 

No.35: Speakers: Castle Chester, Mirage M- 

7si, Totem Model 1, Tannoy 6.1, NHT 2.3, 3a 

Micro Monitor, Rogers LS2a/2. Plus: Tests of 

high end video recorders, hi-fi stereo recordings 

of piano performances of 75 years ago. 

Acoustics part 6: Conceiving the room. 

No.34: Cables: MIT ZapChord & PC2, Monster 

PowerLine 2+, M1, M2 Sigma, Reference 2, 

Interlink 400 & MSK2, Straight Wire Maestro, 

Isoda HA- 08 - PSR, Audioquest Ruby & 

Emerald, AudioStream Twinax, FMS Gold 

& Black, NBS Mini Serpent. Acoustics 5: 

Diffusing sound. “The Plot to Kill Hi-Fi,” the 

much-reprinted article on audio retailing. 

No.33: CD players: Spectral SDR-1000SL, 

Esoteric P-2/D-2, Micromega Duo.BS, Proceed 

PDT2/PDP2 and PCD2, MSB Silver, Esoteric 

CD-Z5000, Carver SD/A-490t. The future of 

audio, according to Linn’s Ivor Tiefenbrun. 

Acoustics part 4: Absorbing low frequencies. 

No.32: The Audio Dream Book: Our 152-page 

guide to what’s out there. Acoustics part 3: 

Taming reverberation. 

No.31: Amplifiers: Counterpoint SA-100 and 

SA-1000, Audio Research Classic 30, QED 

C300 and P300, Sugden Au-41, Audiolab 

8000P, Carver C-19, Arcam Delta 110 and 120. 

Why balanced lines? Buying audio by mail. 

Acoustics part 2: Predicting standing waves. 

No.30: Speakers: Castle Winchester, Energy 

22.2, P-E Léon Trilogue,NHT 1.3, Celef CF1, 

Polk RM3000, Response II by Clements. 

Acoustics part 1: Room size and acoustics. 

No.29: Turntables: Linn Basik & LP12 with 

Lingo. Oracle Delphi MkIV, Oracle Paris. 

Pickups: Goldring Excel, 1022 & 1042, 

Revolver Bullet, Talisman Virtuoso DTi, Sumiko 

Blue Point, Roksan Shiraz. Test CD’s. Dorian’s 

Craig Dory. 

No.28: Integrated amps: Linn Intek, Naim NAIT 

2, Arcam Alpha II, Audio Innovations 500 II, 

Mission Cyrus Two, Creek 4141, Sugden A-21. 

Aiwa cassette deck, a guide to distortion. 

To see a list of older issues: 

http://www.uhfmag.com/Individualissue.html 

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Rendezvous 

WBT Gets Religion 

Well, perhaps religion isn’t 

the right word, but this 

famous German connector 

manufacturer 

has long kept the faith, and brought both 

disciples and apostles together (include 

us in both of those categories). The faith: 

a connector must connect under pressure, 

else it isn’t truly connected at all. 

Now there is a new article of the faith: 

a connector must have enough metal to 

get the job done, and not a molecule 

more. 

Gabriele Hofmann is vice-president 

of WBT, responsible for sales and marketing. 

We talked with her about the 

company’s “nextgen” minimum-metal 

connectors. 

UHF: How old is WBT now? 

Hofmann: It’s exactly 19 years old, it 

began in 1985. 

UHF: And how did it start? Was there a 

strong public demand for a better connector? 

Hofmann: I don’t think so. The company 

grew out of the experiments of 

Wolfgang Thörner. He realized that the 

connectors of the time were not up to the 


quality of the equipment available. He 

saw that the quality of amplifiers, CD 

players and loudspeakers was constantly 

improving, and that this was true even 

of mass-market products, but that connectors 

were not improving accordingly. 

He therefore began looking closely at 

connectors, especially RCA connectors, 

because there was not even a standard 

size. He searched for a solution in that 

area in particular, and he created the 

famous WBT-0100. This first connector 

was solid and made perfect contact with 

the jack. Consumers had a good chance 

of installing the cable solidly, since it 

was easy to solder, it used Teflon as an 

insulator, and it was adjustable. 

UHF: Because of the collar… 

Hofmann: Yes, you could tighten the 

collar by turning the outside sleeve. 

This clamping device was the subject of 

WBT’s first patent. 

UHF: Was there an initial resistance on the 

part of manufacturers to this new connector 

that was, inevitably, expensive? 

Less metal…does it 

result in more sound? 

Hofmann: It took some years to convince 

dealers and the audio industry 

that this new sort of connector was an 

essential component of a quality product. 

What’s interesting is that it was initially 

the consumer who first adopted these 

phono and banana plugs, and convinced 

dealers to pick them up. The improvement 

was audiophile-driven. 

UHF: So initially WBT connectors were 

perceived as a sort of tweak. 

Hofmann: Yes, exactly. Then the dealers 

followed, realizing how much interest 

there was. The industry reacted years 

later, because the dealer demand was 

there. 

We’re often asked why we go to 

shows and explain to consumers the 

details of crimping and the like, instead 

of staying in our role of supplier. But 

we know where we’ve come from, and 

we know how the different sectors of 

the industry — consumers, dealers and 

manufacturers — interact. 

UHF: One price you’ve paid as a result of 

your success is that your products are widely 

imitated. 

Hofmann: Yes, and it’s not a problem 

we had anticipated at all. We hadn’t 

expected that the way we build our 

connectors would be so popular that our 

Taiwanese and Chinese friends would 

want to adopt our designs too. Our RCA 

connectors have been especially copied. 

I can’t count how many times we have 

resorted to lawyers. It’s less of a problem 

now, but we have had to fight to insure 

that a connector that looks like a WBT 

also has WBT quality. 

UHF: Which is not always the case. 

Hofmann: In the case of copies, certainly 

not. Some consumers have actually 

returned to us products that turned 

out to be counterfeits, even though they 

had paid WBT prices. 

UHF: You’ve also been attacked by competitors 

whose designs are different from yours, 

and who claim that what you make is not 

the best, that your locking system is not a 

good idea. 

Hofmann: Not really. 

UHF: We’re thinking about Tiffany, for 

instance. 

Hofmann: (laughs). Yes, but we haven’t 

been much attacked by anyone else. The 

industry adopted us because using WBT 

connectors meant one less problem.

Rendezvous 

There were such wide size tolerances in 

RCA plugs in particular, that our adjustable 

connectors offered the only way to 

insure a tight connection. 

UHF: How much importance do you give to 

metallurgy, the quality of metals used? 

Hofmann: A great deal. But we especially 

emphasize mechanical integrity. 

We believe in a tight contact plus a 

good basic material, which is to say a 

material that has the greatest conductivity 

possible. Most of all, whatever the 

material, it must make contact under the 

greatest possible pressure, and the most 

constant pressure. We’ve always used 

materials that allowed us to put together 

a mechanically complex structure. It’s 

always been a copper alloy. 

Our Midline connectors contain 

somewhat less copper than our Topline 

connectors, for reasons of economy. But 

we do consider the best materials to be 

either copper or pure silver, which offers 

the highest conductivity. Our sandwich 

spade, which came out in 1998, is made 

of either pure copper or pure silver. We 

will shortly be launching a binding post 

made from pure copper also. We tried 

to use the same materials in our RCA 

connectors, but the mechanical requirements 

made that impossible. The parts 

in an RCA plug are much smaller. 

UHF: And therefore more fragile. 

Hofmann: Exactly. We’ve been around 

for two decades, and people expect 

our products to be stable and to work 

perfectly. So designs take a little longer 

at WBT than at certain companies that 

don’t have this history and responsibility. 

UHF: WBT connectors have always been 

high-mass, but your nextgen connectors contain 

much less metal. It’s a new departure. 

Hofmann: Absolutely. You could even 

say it is for us a major step forward in a 

totally different direction. We’ve been 

happy with past designs, and we’ve kept 

using pure copper or pure silver conductor 

materials as the goal. However we 

know that, when you have a hot lead 

with a massive ground surrounding it, 

the electrical field can cause a magnetic 

field, and vice versa. Our experiments 

indicated that, if you just open the closed 

circle of metal around the hot lead, you 

avoid eddy currents. 

And it has been possible to use pure 

copper or pure silver, and make a connector 

with 75 ohm impedance, at the 

same time. The impedance of a connector 

is determined by its geometry. 

We’re proud of the fact that, with 

our nextgen WBT-0110 plug and WBT- 

0210 RCA jack, we can offer connectors 

which make a perfect match, especially 

with digital cables. 

UHF: The nextgen connectors must be soldered. 

WBT has always favored crimping. 

Hofmann: Absolutely, and we still do, 

particularly with speaker connections, 

where proper soldering is sometimes 

difficult to accomplish. Our best Topline 

RCA connector is the 0108, which is 

a crimp-type connector, but with the 

nextgen crimping hasn’t been possible 

as a first step. 

Still, we haven’t halted our development. 

Our original RCA connectors 

were solder types, and the crimping 

system was developed only later. With 

the nextgen it’s more complicated, 

because we’re no longer using an alloy, 

but pure copper, which is a very soft 

material. So making a crimping connector, 

with fine threading and tiny 

screws…that won’t be easy. Take a look 

inside one of the nextgens, and imagine 

connecting a crimped wire in there. 

UHF: It would be difficult. 

Hofmann: You see, the metal parts 

inside the nextgen are essentially just a 

small extension of the wire itself. Perhaps 

Mr. Thörner will find a solution, but we 

have to consider the possibility that the 

nextgen idea will stop here. 

UHF: Will there be nextgen bananas or 

binding posts? 

Hofmann: Certainly. The pure copper 

banana has long been on our drawing 

board. However WBT has a great many 

manufacturers among its clients, and 

so our first point of focus has been the 

binding post. That will be next, and the 

banana will follow. However we need to 

design it so that anyone can easily solder 

to it. That means using a material that 

won’t melt, but also one that is very rigid, 

because it will make up the body of the 

connector. We use Ultramid for the 

body of our nextgen RCA’s, because it’s 

very strong, and inside we use Dyneon, 

which resists heat. 

And of course we have maintained 

the principle of the collet-chuck device, 

which can be tightened. The collet is 

made of aluminum and magnesium, but 

it is electrically insulated from ground. 

However it helps protect the hot lead 

against external interference. 

So we’ve made what we think is the 

ideal compromise, minimizing the metal 

used in the ground lead, but without 

abandoning shielding. 


Rendezvous 

Think Small: Eichmann Connectors 

Everything about the cables 

from Eichmann, an upstart 

manufacturer in Australia, 

is…well, different. And that 

goes right down to its connectors. 

Eichmann was the first manufacturer to 

design most of the metal out of its phono 

plugs and bananas. Of course there’s a 

theory behind the design. We talk with 

Eichmann’s Managing Director, Rob 

Woodland. 

UHF: Tell us about first meeting Keith 

Eichmann. 

Woodland: I met Keith Eichmann by 

chance in 1997 when sourcing material 

from a local cable manufacturer in Brisbane. 

It appeared we were the two people 

in Brisbane prototyping high end cables, 

so the manufacturer put us together. 

As it turned out, Keith’s theories on 

cable and connector design were more 

compelling than mine. 

We collaborated for a couple of 

years to turn theory into practice, and 

in 1999 Keith proposed an arrangement 

whereby I would license his technology 

and commercialize the products. Hence 

the start of Eichmann Technologies 

International. 

The Company now exports products 

to over 30 countries, and our connectors 

are used by over 60 cable manufacturers 

around the world. 

UHF: Eichmann’s designs are certainly 

more unusual than those of most other cable 

designers. What convinced you that he was 

right, and that so many others are wrong? 

If “wrong” is the word. 

Woodland: Keith Eichmann’s philosophy 

is to preserve electron flow from 

wall socket to loudspeaker. For example, 

our AC cable incorporates a unique 

fractal shape that reduces resonance 

and provides a cleaner flow of electrons 

to the power supplies of components. 

The interconnect and speaker cables 

incorporate an EMF buffer system to 

protect electrons in the signal carrying 

conductors, while our Bullet Plug 

and Bayonet Plug connectors deliver 

electrons in the most efficient manner 

to sockets and binding posts. 

The philosophy involves thinking 


small. Very small! At the electron level, 

and then designing a methodology to 

enhance electron flow. However, the 

proof is always in the listening, and this 

is where I was convinced the Eichmann 

philosophy is correct. In fact, the first 

time I listened to a prototype Bullet 

Plug, I was amazed by the detail, dynamics 

and transparency that was completely 

hidden when using standard RCA connectors. 

In a similar sense, the initial Eichmann 

cable designs also provided more 

musical information and holographic 

imaging when compared to many other 

High-End cables. I recall telling Keith 

that his cable was the great “untangler,” 

where separation of detail was better 

than anything previously encountered. 

UHF: Was the idea behind the Bullet 

plug and the Bayonet plug — that is, 

using a minimum amount of metal — 

part of Keith’s original designs? 

Woodland: To a certain extent this is 

correct, however our objective is always 

to use the “optimum” rather than “minimum” 

amount of metal. That is, the right 

mass and thickness of material to support 

current flow but to minimise skin 

effect problems. When I mention skin 

effect, hackles will raise on the half of 

the audiophile community that believes 

skin effect is not a concern at audio 

frequencies. This may be so, however 

when you listen to music via an optimum 

thickness of metal connector rather than 

a large thickness of metal connector, it is 

evident that some electrical phenomenon 

is taking place. 

In the Bullet Plug, the hollow signal 

pin not only allows for an optimum 

thickness of metal to be achieved, but 

also allows for connection of the signal 

wire at the “tip” of the pin, which is 

beneficial for many cable designs. The 

hollow pin isn’t a new idea, as SME (and 

perhaps other companies) adopted the 

same principal for tonearm lead RCA 

connectors decades ago. 

In the Bayonet Plug (banana) connector, 

we again use the optimum amount of 

metal — but this time to support genuine 

current flow provided by the amplifier. 

One of the more popular banana plug 

designs on the market is a laboratory 

connector with an extremely thin metal 

contact pin. This is an example of too 

little mass, where the contact pin doesn’t 

support current flow. The result is a thin 

sound, lacking in bass foundation. On 

the other side of the coin we have huge 

connectors that sound slow, colored and 

bloated. 

In most standard RCA and banana 

plug designs, electrons have to travel 

through large amounts of metal, in many 

cases poor conductive brass. During 

that process electrons are impacted in 

a negative sense. For optimum electron 

flow, we require an optimum mass and 

thickness of the metal. 

UHF: But hold on, high metal mass doesn’t 

necessarily mean that the electrons have to 

travel through a large amount of metal. 

The signal path in many connectors may be 

broad, but it isn’t necessarily long. Is that 

still a problem? 

Woodland: This is a good point. 

However, when I say electrons travel 

“through” metal, this encompasses travel 

on the surface of the metal, and at depth 

depending on frequency. When you have 

a broad section of metal, electrons don’t 

just go through the metal to reach the

Rendezvous 

contact point on the other side — they 

also travel on the skin. 

To take an absurd example, let’s look 

at a plate a foot across and a quarter inch 

across. If you apply a signal to the centre 

of the plate, electrons will move through 

the plate and also around the surface of the 

plate, to join up on the other side. The 

arrival time of electrons will vary, and 

sound quality will be poor. If we reduce 

the plate to a quarter inch diameter, then 

life for electrons becomes much easier. If 

we hollowed out the plate to form a tube 

with optimum wall thickness, then the 

result would be improved further. 

Over the years audiophiles have 

been conditioned to think that a quality 

connector needs to be large and 

chunky with a layer of thick gold plate, 

the bigger-is-better philosophy. When 

people hear the Bullet Plug and Bayonet 

Plug connectors, they hear their cables in 

a new light, and realize that “optimum” 

mass is perhaps a better philosophy. 

UHF: You’ve done listening tests against 

more traditional connectors? 

Woodland: Yes, comparison testing 

plays a big part in the process, and helps 

in the understanding of how different 

shapes and thicknesses of metal impact 

on sound quality. 

UHF: Can you be specific? What sort of 

differences could you hear? 

Woodland: The issue of connectors 

having an influence on sound is the new 

frontier of audio. Most people, including 

manufacturers, have never extensively 

listened to connectors. We all agree 

capacitors, resistors, transistors, tubes 

etc have a sonic signature, however we 

overlook the importance of connectors. 

Anyone who has hardwired a system 

will attest to the sonic improvements 

achievable with connectors removed. But 

in real life, we need connectors. 

Most connectors rob the music of 

detail and add coloration and texture to 

the sound. Large-mass connectors tend 

to have a bloated, sluggish bass with an 

overlay of dark coloration that extends 

into the midrange. They sound veiled 

and congested with limited separation 

and sound staging properties. Music 

lacks excitement. Some low mass banana 

plug connectors sound thin, bright and 

flat with a lack of bass foundation and 

dimensionality. 

In comparison, a hardwired system 

is likely to sound clean, transparent and 

open, with a wealth of detail. Images are 

separated and solid in a three-dimensional 

sound stage. The stopping and 

starting of notes is more precise, leading 

to an engaging, exciting sound. 

In the development of our connectors, 

we set out to design “no plug” at 

all. 

UHF: Well, as you mention, low metal mass 

isn’t the whole story, and minimizing metal 

can actually get you in trouble. Where is the 

golden mean? 

Woodland: The golden mean is the 

“optimum” thickness and mass of metal 

to suit the application. And determining 

the optimum thickness is where the hard 

work comes in. It means putting theories 

into practice, multiple prototypes and 

long listening sessions. 

One theory used with great effect in 

our Bullet Plug design is replacing the 

standard RCA ground collar that surrounds 

the socket with a pin-like ground 

that makes single point contact with the 

side wall of the socket. We immediately 

eliminate eddy type distortion where the 

signal enters and exits the collar from 

multiple directions. 

We also place a great deal of importance 

on the conductivity of material. 

For example, most connectors are made 

from brass, due to low cost and ease of 

machining. Brass offers around 28% 

the conductivity of 100% IACS copper. 

Cable manufacturers and audiophiles 

take great pride in the use of high conductive 

wire for cables, yet terminate 

the cables with a lump of low-conductive 

brass. It defeats the purpose! 

In our connectors, we use either high 

conductive tellurium copper, which is 

99.5% oxygen-free with the addition of 

0.5% tellurium for hardness, to allow 

machining, or hard drawn 4-nines pure 

silver. Both materials offer huge sound 

quality advantages over brass. 

UHF: Are you among those who believe 

that a connection must be made under 

pressure? 

Woodland: Yes, a certain amount of 

pressure is necessary to provide secure 

contact between conductive elements, 

and to avoid capacitive problems. For 

example, the Bullet Plug is a firm fit onto 

RCA sockets, so the polymer collar can 

force the ground pin against the side 

wall of the socket. A loose connection 

inevitably means poor performance. 

UHF: Does the plastic material used play 

a sonic role as well? Of course it has to resist 

melting, but beyond that? 

Woodland: The plastic material is used 

sparingly to hold the contact pins in 

place and provide compression forces. 

We select engineering grade polymers 

that exhibit good dielectric qualities 

plus high temperature deflection. So to 

answer your question, we work to ensure 

the plastic has minimal contact with the 

conductive element and minimal effect 

on the sonics. 

You also mention the “M” word, 

melting. Audiophiles need to realize that 

even the strongest polymer will melt in 

prolonged contact with high heat. When 

soldering the Bullet Plug we recommend 

inserting the plug into a discarded RCA 

socket, which acts as a heat sink and 

deflects heat away from the plastic. 

In saying that, it takes around 15 

seconds for a soldering iron at 425° C 

in contact with the signal pin before 

melting occurs. Most soldering can be 

achieved within five seconds. 

UHF: The banana plug seems fragile…it 

bends easily. Do you see a way around that 

problem? 

Woodland: The challenge we face 

with the Bayonet banana plug is really 

the crimp ring. To allow the crimp 

ring to work, we anneal — heat in a 

vacuum — the contact pin following 

machining. This makes the copper quite 

soft and therefore prone to bending. 

If we did away with the crimp option, 

then we wouldn’t have the problem, 

but there’s some advantage to crimping 

larger diameter speaker cables. 

The good news is we’re working on 

a solution that will offer will best of 

both worlds. Meanwhile, if the contact 

element does bend, it is quite easy to 

bend back into shape, and the motion 

of bending actually hardens the metal 

at this point. 

UHF: Will you be developing other connectors, 

for instance RCA jacks? 

Woodland: The next product due for 

release in September is a binding post for 

amplifiers and speakers. We’re confident 

it will provide a sonic improvement over 

any binding post now available. 


Listening Room 

Making the Connection 

Do all cables sound the same? 

Hardly, and we’ve known 

that for years (like all cashstrapped 

audiophiles, we 

wish it weren’t true). Now here’s another 

question: do all connectors sound the 

same? 

We know the answer to that one too, 

and it’s no. To begin with, some connectors 

are tight, and others are loose. You 

can spot this by ear. It’s one reason we 

have long been fans of the locking connectors 

of WBT. 

But there is more to a connector 

than its tightness. The materials used 

also matter, and we’ve heard horror 

stories about the recycled materials 

used in some connectors made to look 

like famous-brand upscale connectors. 

Now the spotlight has been thrown 

on another aspect of audio connectors: 

how much material — specifically 

metal — they contain. 

Consider this. Audio cable designers 

are picky not only for materials used for 

their cables (oxygen-free copper, singlecrystal 

strands, pure silver, Teflon, etc.), 

but also their geometry. If you accept the 

claim that a cable’s geometry matters, it 

becomes evident that most connectors 

violate cable geometry in major ways. 

Wouldn’t the cable sound better if its 

connectors were closer in construction 

to the wire itself? 

Two manufacturers have adopted 

the view that most connectors contain 

way too much metal. The first of these 

is Australia’s Eichmann, whose Bullet 

Plug was first on the market with a body 

that is mostly plastic (it also makes a 

low-metal banana). And now the venerable 

WBT has launched its own line of 

minimum metal connectors, under the 

name “nextgen.” Interviews with key 

people from both companies can be 

found on preceding pages. 

We have samples of connectors from 

both enterprises, and we devised what we 

think is an appropriate comparison test. 

We installed both Bullet Plugs and nextgen 

RCA plugs on lengths of Wireworld 

Equinox 5, the latest version of a cable 

we long used in our own systems, and 


which were offered in our Audiophile 

Store. We also have a length of Equinox 

5 with Wireworld’s own Silver Pipe 

connectors, which the company claims 

sound superior to the WBT-0108 plugs 

we have long favored. 

The listening was done in our Alpha 

system, with the test cables running 

between our Linn Unidisk 1.1 player 

and our Copland CTA-305 preamplifier. 

The Linn has dual outputs, which made 

things convenient. We kept our Pierre 

Gabriel ML-1 reference cable connected 

to one output, and the test cable to the 

other, running to a separate input on 

the preamplifier. That meant we could 

do quick comparisons. 

We should add that we did not use 

this setup as an opportunity to do A-B 

comparisons, switching quickly from 

one cable to the other, since we know 

how easy it is to get fooled on such tests 

(years ago we used such a test to “prove” 

that a cassette sounds exactly like the 

original). It was, however, convenient 

to return to the reference cable, as we 

did more than once, to confirm what 

we thought we remembered hearing. 

As ever, we found taking detailed notes 

(about the music, not merely the sound), 

was most helpful. 

We used two selections for all of these 

cable evaluations. One was the Sanctus 

for a cappella choir from Opus 3’s SACD 

version of Musica Sacra (CD19516). The 

other was The Best Thing for You Would Be 

Me from Margie Gibson’s wonderful Say 

It With Music CD (Sheffield CD-36). 

The Wireworld Silver Pipe 

Wireworld was long happy about our 

Audiophile Store offering its Equinox 

cable (we started in 1995), and even 

quoted our review on its on-line site, but 

David Salz was also disappointed that 

we were listing it with WBT locking 

connectors, and never with the original 

connectors. When Equinox III was 

replaced by Equinox V (skipping over 

version four), the company sent us not 

only a length of bulk cable for us to try, 

but also a factory version with its new 

connector, claiming superiority over our 

vaunted WBT-0108. 

We initially assumed that the Silver 

Pipe was yet another off-the-shelf connector, 

but it's clearly more ambitious 

than that. The collar and central pin 

are oxygen-free copper, not brass (or 

worse!), and they are silver-plated. 

The dielectric is Teflon, just as it is on 

several of the company’s cables. And the 

central pin is, as the connector’s name 

suggests, a hollow pipe, to minimize 

metal content. There is no tightening 

mechanism, but it was clear that the fit 

was much snugger than it had been with 

any of the previous Wireworld phono 

connectors we had tried. 

The finished 1 metre cable is listed 

in the 2003 catalog at US$194.95, but 

may have changed since. Bulk Equinox 

is listed at US$60/meter, not including 

termination charge. 

Physically, Equinox V strongly 

resembles the older version, though it is 

clearly more flexible. Each cable contains 

78 copper strands that are individually 

coated with enamel, to make it into what 

is essentially a Litz wire, with no jumping 

from strand to strand. The geometry 

is what the company calls Symmetricoax: 

the inner conductor is wrapped about 

a central tube, then Teflon is wrapped


about that, and the outer conductor is 

wrapped about the Teflon. 

Wireworld’s upscale cables cannot be 

terminated by most users. The enamel 

insulation must be removed by dipping 

the stripped end into molten solder of 

around 520°C…not far from 1000°F! 

All three of us agreed that, on the 

Gibson song, it was a long step down 

from our Pierre Gabriel reference to the 

stock Equinox. For one thing the volume 

appeared to have dropped. To be sure, 

this is a subjective effect, not something 

that would show up on a voltmeter, and 

it could even be an improvement, if the 

cable otherwise sounded better. 

But it didn’t. Sibilance, though not 

actually objectionable, was less natural, 

the words less clear, the string bass less 

weighty. Everything seemed smaller. 

Albert complained of a lack of body 

to the choir in the Sanctus as well. The 

result was that the men, who initially 

come in behind the women, were all but 

inaudible. And we were rather too aware 

of all the “S” syllables in the piece. 

True, this cable costs a fifth the price 

of our reference cable. However we long 

used Equinox ourselves, and we didn’t 

recognize its sound. Would the cable do 

better with different connectors? 

We were hoping so, and our optimism 

would be rewarded. 

WBT-0110 nextgen 

The company insists on banishing 

upper case letters from the name of its 

new line, and we acquiesce with the 

greatest reluctance. Connection is by 

soldering, since the crimping system of 

the WBT-0108 would add a lot of metal. 

What metal is left is now gold-plated 

copper, not gold over brass or copper 

alloy. Just one of the jaws of the plug 

collar is metal, the others being plastic. 

The centre pin is a hollow tube. 

WBT has adopted a plastic called 

Ultramid for the plug body, with another 

difficult-to-melt plastic called Dyneon 

around the contacts. Connection is 

easy, and indeed you can pour on the 

heat without anything softening. The 

trademark locking collet may look like 

metal, but it too is plastic, and tightening 

it adequately is a two-hand job. Indeed, 

it is nearly impossible to do if there is 

another connector in an adjacent jack. 

These are not cheap connectors, with 

a list price, in Canada, of $180 a box of 

four. An upscale version using silver 

instead of copper is close to $300. 

We didn’t have to listen very far into 

the Sanctus to hear that the connectors 

made a huge difference. The depth had 

returned, and no doubt for that reason 

the male voices in the background were 

easy to spot. “There’s better separation,” 

said Albert, “not just of individual voices 

but of the different timbres of voices. It’s 

smooth, too, but not because it’s hiding 

anything.” 

Reine wasn’t quite as pleased. Nor 

was Gerard, who was the one who knew 

what cable this was. Reine complained 

that the sopranos had more of an edge. 

Gerard praised the spaciousness, but still 

found the “S” sounds not right. 

We were impressed with the cable’s 

performance on the Gibson song. Her 

voice was warm and expressive, with fine 

detail right down to the nearly inaudible 

final syllables. The plucked bass was 

solid. 

Those “S” sounds were bothersome, 

though. Could it be that the wire itself 

was to blame? 

We would soon see. 

Eichmann Bullet Plug 

This was, to the best of our knowledge, 

the first phono connector to be 

expressly designed with a minimum 

amount of metal. The metal used is gold 

over copper, what there is of it. 

Like the other two connectors, the 

Bullet Plug has a central pin that is a 

hollow pipe. The outer collar is entirely 

plastic, with only a tiny spring that 

presses against the jack body. The fit 

is snug to a fault, and we had difficulty 

pushing the plugs into the jacks on our 

Copland preamp. 

Connecting to a Bullet Plug is harder 

than to a WBT. The solder lugs are 

small, with that of the ground especially 

tiny. And you have to do your work 

quickly, because the plastic used will 

melt if you dawdle (Eichmann suggests 

inserting the plug into a jack while you 

work). Speaking of plastic, we wish the 

colors didn’t make them look like something 

from Toys’R’Us. 

The Eichmann plugs are much 

cheaper than the WBT’s, with a Canadian 

suggested list price of $65 for a box 

of four (just over US$51 at the current 

exchange rate). The silver version (inevitably 

called the Silver Bullet, and which 

comes in more muted colors, happily), is 

C$149. 

We listened to the Margie Gibson 

selection, and we listened initially for 

those troublesome “S” sounds. The 

finding was not as we had hoped. We 

were pretty much split in fact. Reine and 

Albert now noted a certain strangeness 

in the “S” syllables. Gerard, who spoke 

last because this was not a blind test 

for him, praised the sound for its lyrical 

quality and its abundance of subtle 

detail. 

Reine liked Gibson’s delicious glissandos, 

more apparent with this cable 

than with either of the other versions, 

but for the moment she ranked the WBT 

over the Eichmann (which she referred 

to only by number, since she didn’t 

know which was which). Albert enjoyed 

the overall balance between voice and 

instruments. He thought Gibson’s voice 

seemed “wrapped up” in something, but 

wasn’t initially certain whether that was 

good or bad. 

We then listened to the Sanctus on 

SACD. “From the first measures you 



know it’s right,” said Reine. “This is my 

favorite.” Albert liked the fullness and 

the smoothness of the voices, as well 

as the excellent separation of timbres. 

And yet… “There’s a certain coloration 

to the sound. It makes me think of our 

reference cable, and I know that sounds 

like a good thing, but I don’t think the 

sound is completely neutral.” 

As for Gerard, he liked the way the 

sibilance was rendered, as he had with 

the previous recording, but he missed 

the depth and roundness of the WBT 

version. 

The final vote was split. After voting 

initially for WBT, Reine wound up 

choosing the Eichmann Bullet plug as 

sounding closest to the reference. Albert 

and Gerard were not as firm. 

There was, however, one consensus: 

no votes went to the Silver Pipe. 

Five Atlas Cables 

We first ran across this 

British company at CES 

last January. Its cables 

looked nice enough, but 

you wouldn’t believe how saturated we 

are with cables. Would we like samples? 

Hmm, all right, if you must… 

With CES over, we looked through 

the literature. The cables were more 

interesting than we had first assumed. 

Most were made up of strands of continuous 

cast copper, each containing not 

thousands or millions of copper crystals, 

but just one crystal. We had run across 

the Ohno continuous casting technology 

before: Harmonic Technologies (UHF 

No. 63) also uses copper with no crystal 

boundaries, as do other companies, from 

Granite Audio to Acoustic Zen. Some of 

the Atlas models are optionally available 

with plugs that are also fashioned from 

monocrystal copper. 

The price list was interesting as 

well, with North American prices corresponding 

closely to UK prices. We 

sent for samples and did a first listening 

session in our Omega system. It was 

enough for us to add three cables to our 

store, but now we wanted to give them 

the full treatment. 

We should add that we had made the 

mistake of too quickly sending back the 

samples we had not found interesting. 

That’s the reason all of the cables in this 

series turned out to be at least pretty 

good…and in some cases more than just 

pretty good. 

The comparisons were done the same 

way we had done the connector test: 

Gerard knew which cable was which, but 

the other two reviewers did not, and they 

gave their opinion first. We used the 

same two recorded selections: Margie 

Gibson singing The Best Thing For You 


Would Be Me (from Say It With Music, 

Sheffield CD-36), and the Sanctus from 

the Opus 3 SACD Musica Sacra. The 

cables were brought out in random order. 

Albert and Reine referred to them only 

by number, and were told nothing more 

until all discussions were completed. 

Atlas Voyager All-Cu 

This mid-priced black-colored cable 

is made from strands of continuous 

cast copper. Though it is available with 

conventional connectors that look much 

like everyone else’s, the version reviewed 

here has the optional monocrystal connectors. 

The “All-Cu” designation refers 

to the material used for the connectors’ 

mating surfaces: pure copper, plated with 

silver. No, the “ordinary” version doesn’t 

sound quite the same (see the previous 

review if you don’t think connectors 

matter), but it fits tightly, avoiding the 

grainy sound of connectors that touch 

only if the wind is blowing right. 

The Voyager is double-shielded, 

with a continuous cast braid that is also 

one of the cable’s two conductors, plus 

a metallized Mylar foil. The dielectric is 

polyethylene foam. 

Albert and Reine were struck by the 

cable’s neutrality. On the Gibson song, 

Reine noted the solidity of the plucked 

bass and the excellent audibility of subtle 

voice inflections, including those elusive 

ends of syllables. Albert agreed. “Its 

sound doesn’t really attract attention one 

way or the other,” he said, “and that’s 

good.” 

On the choral piece, once again there 

were few flaws, though the differences 

between the Voyager and our Pierre 

Gabriel ML-1 reference cable became 

more evident. The recording’s great 

depth was somewhat reduced, and that 

in turn made it more difficult to make 

out the differences in the timbres of the 

different voices. Both Reine and Albert 

had similar notes. Albert found the 

sound slightly thinner, but praised the 

cable for the smoothness of the highs. 

Gerard, speaking only once the other 

two had finished, largely agreed, though 

he also found the sibilance slightly too 

prominent. 

The 1 m cable as tested costs £170, 

or US$315, or C$375. The version with 

conventional connectors costs £110/ 

US$204/C$235. 

Atlas Equator 

This is the company’s economy cable, 

the only one not to use Ohno continuous 

cast copper. The same dielectric is used 

as in the Voyager, but there is no extra 

shielding. The connectors are goldplated 

and nicely made, fitting snugly 

into the jacks of both our CD player and 

our preamplifier. The base metal is brass, 

as it is on many connectors…at least the 

ones that are not made from recycled 

boat anchors.


Voyager All-Cu 

The first thing that struck us was that 

the sound was not as loud as with either 

our reference or the Voyager cable, 

despite the fact that the volume control 

had not been touched. We should add 

that this is not something that can be 

checked with a voltmeter, since cable 

resistance is so low (less than 0.03 ohms) 

that attenuation is negligible. Indeed, a 

quick A-B test done with our preamplifier’s 

input selector did not reveal a drop 

in level (we don’t do evaluations with A-B 

tests for reasons already discussed). The 

apparent level drop, then, is subjective, 

and may be caused by a certain softening 

of transients by the cable. 

Still, softening doesn’t mean smearing. 

On the Sanctus the separation of 

timbres was quite good, and more importantly 

the tone of the singers’ voices was 

attractive. Was this cable comparable to 

the Voyager? As the piece progressed, 

Albert and Reine (who thought of the 

two cables only as “number one” and 

Equator 

“number two”) weren’t so sure. Depth 

was certainly reduced, and so was the 

sheer size of the sound field. 

Gerard, the only one to know that 

this was an economy cable, also liked the 

sound of the voices, though he was less 

enthusiastic about what it did to syllables 

with “S” sounds. 

He made the same complaint on the 

Margie Gibson song, once Albert and 

Reine had praised the cable. Reine did 

find the top end somewhat less smooth 

than with either our reference or the 

Voyager, but she liked the expressive 

quality of the music. 

The unanimous conclusion is that 

this is a very good cable, and it is especially 

praiseworthy when you consider its 

price: £40/US$75/C$90. Most cables of 

this price sound grainy, thin, and — in 

all too many cases — shrill. The Equator 

is a refreshing exception. 

Atlas Questor 

With this cable we were pretty 

much on an equal footing, because even 

Gerard knew nothing about it beyond its 

name. This was a sample, and at the time 

it was not included on any price lists, in 

either pounds or US dollars. 

We have since learned the details. 

It is an economy cable, a little costlier 

than the Equator, with what seems to 

be similar connectors. The difference 

is that its conductors are made of Ohno 

continuous cast copper. Though we have 

not carried out an exhaustive survey, 

we suspect the number of monocrystal 

cables at this price must be quite small. 

And we would later be especially 

surprised to learn its price, because we 

quickly concluded that this cable was 

a class act. On the Gibson song, both 

piano and voice were admirably well 

reproduced. Transparency was excellent, 

letting us hear background details. The 

bottom end was very good, with both the 

cello and the plucked bass solid and natural. 

Rhythm was strong. “It’s moving,” 

said Reine, “and it’s convincing.” Gerard 

noted approvingly that Gibson’s notoriously 

difficult esses sounded normal. 

The Questor also did well on the 

choral recording. Albert had noted 

that, with the economy Equator cable, 

it had been difficult to follow the male 

voices when they first come in behind 

Questor 

the women. No such problem here. The 

ensemble sound was smooth and effortless. 

“There’s great smoothness coupled 

with large volume,” said Albert. 

The sibilance? Normal, judged 

Gerard. “It really has no major flaws.” 

Indeed, the results were good enough 

that all three of us assumed this must be 

an expensive cable. It isn’t. The price of 

our 1 m pair is £60/US$109/C$135. It’s 

in the bargain category. 

Atlas Explorer 

This cable is the same blue color as 

the Questor, and the same size too, but 

with two notable differences. One is the 

addition of a second shield, of metallized 

Mylar foil. The other is the slimmer 

“self-cleaning” plug used on some of the 

more expensive Atlas cables. 

Albert liked the smoothness of the 

Gibson song coming through this cable. 

“The sound is simple,” he said, “but 

I mean that in a good sense.” Reine 

thought the cable made the plucked bass 

sound unlike the way it did with any 

of the other cables tried so far. There 

seemed to be a touch of reverberation not 

discernible with other cables. Gibson’s 

voice emotional and sensitive. 

Gerard, who of course knew what 

this cable cost, gave it a poorer mark. “I 

don’t like the sibilance,” he said. “I kept 

dreading the next word that had an ‘S’ 

in it, and that rather spoiled the song for 

me.” 

The cable seemed much better on 

the difficult choral Sanctus. The difficult 

higher frequencies were smooth and 

natural. “Even the sibilance is pretty 

good,” would add Gerard later. 



Explorer 

But there was more. All the vocal 

registers were easy to follow, including 

the voices of the tenors as they emerge 

from the background. Better yet, they 

were attractive and natural. The acoustic 

space, which is huge on this wonderfullyrecorded 

SACD, was reasonably ample. 

Any misgivings? Reine had one: 

“The sopranos sound pure, not at all 

hard, but you know what? They don’t 

seem to be coming in at the same time.” 

That led to the obvious discussion…was 

that because the Explorer was messing 

something up, or because it was revealing 

something that other cables, including 

our reference, were hiding? We had 

a pretty good idea of the answer. 

The price? For a 1 m pair, it’s £90 or 

US$167. 

We haven’t noted a Canadian price, 

because we didn’t pick up the Explorer 

for our Audiophile Store. It costs half 

again as much as the Questor, and we 

weren’t convinced it offered sufficient 

value. 

Atlas Navigator All-Cu 

This is the company’s top cable, and 

its structure is different from that of 

any of the others. Of course it is also 

made from monocrystal copper, but it 


has two internal conductors plus shield, 

instead of a single central conductor, 

with the shield serving as the second 

signal conductor. That means the shield 

is connected at only one end, so that the 

signal cannot travel along it. This is a 

far superior arrangement. A number of 

other companies have similar configurations, 

usually billed as “semi-balanced.” 

A true balanced cable, of course, would 

have signal travelling along all three 

conductors, and so Atlas prefers the term 

“pseudo-balanced.” So do we. 

The shield is augmented by a metallized 

Mylar foil, also connected at 

only one end. Such hypershielding 

increases cable capacitance, but it also 

avoids picking up all sorts of electronic 

garbage. The conductors are packed 

with fibre strands to prevent mechanical 

movement. Bizarre at may seem, under 

some circumstances a cable can act like 

a microphone, albeit not a very good 

one. 

Like the Voyager, the Navigator is 

available with either conventional connectors 

(the “self-cleaning” ones also 

used on the Explorer), or the singlecrystal 

copper connectors like the ones 

on our sample Voyager cable. We had the 

latter. The connectors add a lot to the 

cost, but either you believe in connectors 

or you don’t. We do. 

We began with the Sanctus. Reine 

and Albert couldn’t know that this was 

Navigator All-Cu 

the top Atlas cable, but they quickly 

guessed. “There’s lots more there,” said 

Reine, “and no ‘buts’ this time. You can 

hear the esses, for example, but they 

sound the way they would at a concert.” 

Albert praised the separation and the 

sheer musicality of the blended voices. 

“It’s at once clear and smooth. There’s no 

insistence on any aspect of the music.” 

The Margie Gibson song came 

through wonderfully well too, with a 

rendition that Albert rated just behind 

our reference cable. Both piano and voice 

were natural and attractive. The tone 

was joyous. Cello and plucked bass were 

solid and clear, and minor percussion 

instruments stood out starkly against a 

velvety background. Reine, who didn’t 

know what cable this was, gave the 

Navigator the final half star she had 

been holding back. Gerard, who did 

know what it was, rated the cable at the 

top of the Atlas line, commenting that 

the clarity let through the nuances of 

Gibson’s ever so slight Italian accent. 

As already mentioned, a preliminary 

listening session had been so positive 

that we had already adopted two of the 

Navigators for our reference systems. 

One of them is on the Audiomeca J-1 

turntable in our Alpha system, replacing 

a Wireworld Equinox. The Navigator 

greatly improved the sound of our turntable. 

The other links the phono stage to 

the preamplifier in our Omega system. 

Oh yes, the price. 

The All-Cu version reviewed here 

costs £185/US$345/C$405. The version 

with conventional connectors is 

much less expensive, at £120/US$220/ 

C$265. 

Hold on…did we say that the Navigator 

was the top Atlas cable? In fact that 

would be the Elektra, which costs £450. 

Our preliminary session had led us to 

rate the Elektra similar to the Navigator 

All-Cu. We had, unfortunately, sent 

back our sample before this session, and 

it wasn’t possible to listen again. 

After we had completed the session 

and the veritable identities of the 

cables was finally revealed, we had one 

final reflection. Despite differences in 

technologies, the Atlas cables manage 

to maintain a consistent family sound. 

That could easily be the mark of people 

who know what they’re doing.


Simaudio Equinox 

Simaudio has always been an 

electronics company first, and 

a maker of source components 

second. It is, indeed, one of our 

all-time favorite maker of amplifiers, two 

of which can be found in our reference 

systems. 

Still, the company has also produced 

a number of CD players. The Moon 

Eclipse was reviewed in UHF No. 59. It 

has built DVD players as well. The Moon 

Stellar was reviewed in UHF No. 65, and 

we liked it so much we bought it. And it’s 

not as though we hadn’t had other players 

to choose from. 

Now to the Equinox, Simaudio’s 

latest Red Book player. It is the company’s 

economy model, costing little 

more than half the price of the Eclipse 

we reviewed. It uses upscale current 

technology: a Philips transport and 

the usual 24-bit/192 kHz chipset from 

Burr-Brown. Simaudio now has enough 

digital engineering firepower to control 

all this from its own firmware. 

Like other Moon-badged products, 

the Equinox is attractive, with a brushed 

black front panel (you can order it in 

silver if stealth is not your thing). The 

red LED digits are still not as large as we 

would like, but they are so much larger 

and more visible than the competition’s 

that we can only applaud. Basic functions 

are available from either the front panel 

or the remote. 

Workmanship is generally good, with 

especially good metalwork, as is usual 

with this company. However we were 

disconcerted by the hollow clang we 

heard each time the disc drawer opened 

or closed. There was some bad news at 

the rear too. We thought the price would 

have justified better jacks than these, 

which could have been lifted from a $300 

player. The jacks provide coaxial analog 

outputs and digital output, unbalanced 

in both cases. 

We began our listening session 

with what we know to be a tough test: 

Now the Green Blade Riseth (Proprius 

PRCD9093), an unforgiving choral 

recording that can sound thrilling if it’s 

treated right, or like a crosscut saw if it’s 

not. 

And in nearly all respects the Equinox 

did treat it right. The vocal timbres 

of both the men and the women were 

attractive, and the text was clear…or it 

would be to a Swede. The bottom end 

was solid and communicated rhythm 

very well. Reine especially liked the 

way some of the subtle harmonies in the 

soprano voices were rendered, and Albert 

noted how refined and downright joyous 

the sound was. The Equinox was off to 

a great start. 

We continued with Dvorak’s Romantic 

Piece, op. 75 (Analekta FL 2 3191), 

featuring the remarkable violin playing 

of James Ihnes. There are few recordings 

ever made with this convincing a 

violin sound, and the Equinox made it 

come out lush and smooth. At the same 

time the violin’s sound was transparent, 

Is it good enough to 

be your very last Red 

Book CD player? 

letting the piano shine clearly through. 

Only… 

Only what? Get the story in our print 

issue. Now execuse us while we lapse into 

faux Latin. 

Ommy nibh essenia mconulputat 

am quat augait, vel essequam 

augiamet, con utem vel iril ulla feum 

vulla cortionulla consequis dolobortie 

minit, sequam aciliquis nim quis eui 

blam, consequisi eratie tie te dolorper 

ing ea feugait num incin hendiamcon 

ex ercilit ad dipit iriustie dolesto odo 

odipit la adignibh ea feu facip et augue 

min eumsan ulla aut utpat ip ent volore 

elesto do odolobo rtisim iriure veraesting 

erillan essectem dignim velismod 

dip eugiate eugait la at, con ulla feugue 

facipis et alismodolor si. 

































































Brand/model: Simaudio Equinox 

Price: C$2995/US$2000 

Dimensions: 43 x 10.5 x 35 cm 

Most liked: Laor sustrud tincin ulput 

wis 

Least liked: Adigniam incil utpat 

Verdict: Re modolore min utat 

nulputpat. Duis ea facipit incid 

CROSSTALK 









consectem voleniam ipit prat in ut landit 

ad del incin vulputet augait am, conulput 

prat lor sim augait, susto el iure te 

molore We generally thought it was. 

Indeed, in many respects it is superb, 

and we agreed on that. We also agreed 

that its price puts it squarely in a range 

where the competition is something to 

be reckoned with. 

Ommy nibh essenia mconulputat am quat 

augait, vel essequam augiamet, con utem vel 

iril ulla feum vulla cortionulla consequis 

dolobortie minit, sequam aciliquis nim quis 

eui blam, consequisi eratie tie te dolorper ing 

ea feugait num incin hendiamcon ex ercilit ad 

dipit iriustie dolesto odo odipit la adignibh 

ea feu facip et augue min eumsan ulla aut 

utpat ip ent volore elesto do odolobo rtisim 

iriure veraesting erillan essectem dignim 

velismod dip eugiate eugait la at, con ulla 

feugue facipis et alismodolor si. 



esent vel irit et atem dio ercilit lore delissequat. 

Ut at nonsectem velenit alis ametuero 

dolor senis nos eugiamcommy nullut vel diat 

vero core et alisl dolore te consent nonummo 

lobore min henim erit, siscili quisi. 

—Albert Simon 


ulput vent velis nulput ip elisis ad tat. Ut 

endre etue velit, vel doluptate verillametue 

faci blan utate te dio coreet ad tisl et aciliqu 

ationsent velit ad dunt ut niate et la conse 

dolore velis nibh eraesequis augiam eugiam 

amet, commy nullut aliquat autpat. Et, vent 

praestrud dolortisit nonsed magnim quatet 

lobore vel irit, quat. 



feummy nis nulla consequat, quam am quis 

aliquatummy nisl etum iril er sustrud et 

ad enis dolutet nonsequat. Dui ea corem 

aci te facin heniscil ullaor ipit aliquam, 

volummolor iure magnis nisim dolor sectem 

iure tat ipis nosto consed tat augue dolobor 

sumsan henibh ex euisi. 

Agnim erat adigna autatum zzrilit wisl 

eugueriure dolenibh exerilit ipsum eugue 

feummolore doloborem vullam dolummy 

nim quismodit iliquat ueraestrud dignisit, 

sumsan henisi. 

—Gerard Rejskind 



init at nullaore dip enis dolute volut do ore 

commy nim zzriure mod tie dolendreet, vel 

ing et, consed ero do consed et ea faciduipis 

nit ipsuscilit adionsenibh er autat, sim acilis 



Aut numlorerostrud mincilit dit prat 

accummod tis eugue faccumsandre mod. 

Adigniam incil utpat vullandigna consectem 

voleniam ipit prat in ut landit ad del 

incin vulputet augait am, conulput prat lor 

sim augait, susto el iure te molore. 

—Reine Lessard 



Simaudio Moon I-3 

Had we seen this amplifier 

before? A quick search 

through our back issues 

turned up an integrated 

amplifier that looks not unlike it, the 

Moon I-5. It’s in UHF No. 56. We said 

good things about it then, which made 

us optimistic that we would probably 

give this smaller amp a good report 

card too. 

But then again, Simaudio has messed 

up before with small integrated amps. 

Anyone recall the infamous 4070i of 

many years ago? Despite the similarity 

of name to a superb power amp… 

The I-3 package is a nice one, with a 

thick, nicely-finished front panel, silver 

on our unit but also available in black. 

The volume setting is shown in large red 

digits. Previous Simaudio units we’ve 

seen show negative numbers, indicating 

how many decibels below full level the 

volume is set to, a notation many users 

find counterintuitive. On the I-3, full 

off is 0, and the volume goes up from 

that. The steps go up by about 1.8 dB at 

a time (“about” because it varies over the 

range), which means the numbers shown 

are arbitrary. The mute function takes 

the I-3 down to a setting of 2, not 0 as you 

might expect. Functions are accessible 

from the front panel or the attractive 

metal remote control. 

There are six high level inputs, 

labelled “CD” and “A1” through “A5.” 

There is a preamplifier output, to allow 

biamplifying or using a larger power 

amp, a feature we approve of. What’s 

more, the A4 input is just what the doctor 

ordered if you are setting up a hybrid 

music/home theatre system. 

That’s because the A4 signal bypasses 

the volume control, and can be used for 

the left and right front channels of a 

surround sound system. That lets you 

add an external video sound processor 

(which several companies make) to 

your system. When you listen to music, 

however, the movie stuff is completely 

out of the circuit. That could be a major 

consideration when you’re choosing your 

amplifier. 

The input jacks are economy grade. 

The output binding posts look like 

WBT posts, but are not. They give fair 

performance with spades, much better 

performance with bananas. The banana 

jack is built into the post body, not the 

cap, and the tightness of the connection 

doesn’t depend on how tight the cap is. 

Power connection is by the usual IEC 

connection. The line fuse is accessible to 

the user. 

We evaluated the I-3 with a set of 

SACDs, starting with the famous rondo 

from Mozart’s Horn Concerto in E Flat 

(PentaTone 5186 105). From the first 

we liked the warmth, the liveliness and 

the energy of the performance, and we 

enjoyed the broad image as well. As with 

our reference, the rondo was delightful 

to listen to. 

Like the company’s 

other integrated 

amplifiers, it looks 

deceptively small… 

There were, of course, some differences. 

Check out our print issue, and you 

can see what they are. 

Ommy nibh essenia mconulputat 

am quat augait, vel essequam 

augiamet, con utem vel iril ulla feum 

vulla cortionulla consequis dolobortie 

minit, sequam aciliquis nim quis eui 

blam, consequisi eratie tie te dolorper 

ing ea feugait num incin hendiamcon 

ex ercilit ad dipit iriustie dolesto odo 

odipit la adignibh ea feu facip et augue 

min eumsan ulla aut utpat ip ent volore 

elesto do odolobo rtisim iriure veraesting 

erillan essectem dignim velismod 

dip eugiate eugait la at, con ulla feugue 

facipis et alismodolor si. 




























































Laor sustrud tincin 

ulput wisl dolor incip et do 

cor init ut adip el do et vullumm 

odigna consequis esse 

feugait wis dolum dolore feu 

feuis dolum zzriuscidunt 

lore dolorting eugait ex enis 

aut num dio odiam, conulluptat. 

Lor iriure core con 

volortisit in er si blaore do 

dio commod digna feugue 

exercip sustrud ea augait 

dolum nis dolum nos at, quat la feugait 

nim at praessim dolorper alisl dolenissi 


Brand/model: Simaudio Moon I-3 

Price: C$2500/US$1800 

Dimensions: 43 x 8 x 35 cm 

Rated power: 100 watts/channel 

Most liked: Full, rhythmic sound, 

brightness-free clarity 

Least liked: Power rating that seems 

to promise more than you’ll get 

Verdict: Limited quantity of sound, 

made up for by the quality 

bla facip eumsandipit lan esequipit ilit 

dolese ming eu feu facing ea amcommolut 

dit landrerostie tatue dolore te 

vel et ex et la am vent vel utat ad duipit 

niscil ut vulla con hendreet veriliquatum 

deliquipit lobore tationse feum dit adiat 

atum volore et utatie dunt atum del in 

volor auguerat, vel ut ercipismod dolore 

doloreet la facilit, commy nullandrem 

num vulla faccum zzrit ad tem zzriusc 

iliquis sectet aliquatetum nullutpat. Os 

dolute mod et lorerostrud mincilit dit 

prat accummod tis eugue faccumsandre 

mod dit prat nummolo rercipit lore faccummy 

nismolese consed enibh et pratet 

eliquat. Wisit veliquisi. 





te molore. 








nulla augait am. 

CROSSTALK 








































Laor sustrud tincin ulput wisl dolor incip 

et do cor init ut adip el do et vullumm odigna 

consequis esse feugait wis dolum dolore 

feu feuis dolum zzriuscidunt lore dolorting 

eugait ex enis aut num dio odiam, conulluptat. 

Lor iriure core con volortisit in er si 

blaore do dio commod digna feugue exercip 

sustrud ea augait dolum nis dolum nos at, 

quat la feugait nim at praessim dolorper alisl 

dolenissi bla facip eumsandipit lan esequipit 

ilit dolese ming eu feu facing ea amcommolut 

dit landrerostie tatue dolore te vel et 

ex et la am vent vel utat ad duipit niscil ut 

vulla con hendreet veriliquatum deliquipit 

lobore tationse feum dit adiat atum volore et 

utatie dunt atum del in volor auguerat, vel ut 

ercipismod dolore doloreet la facilit, commy 

nullandrem num vulla faccum zzrit ad tem 

zzriusc iliquis sectet aliquatetum nullutpat. 

Os dolute mod et lorerostrud mincilit dit 

prat accummod tis eugue faccumsandre mod 

dit prat nummolo rercipit lore faccummy 

nismolese consed enibh et pratet eliquat. 

Wisit veliquisi. 



esent vel irit et atem dio. 




Reference 3a Dulcet 

One of the buzzwords of 

the decade is “scalable 

technology.” If you set up 

e-commerce software for 20 

customers a day, will it work as well with 

20,000 customers a day? 

But scalability works both ways. 

Reference 3a has shown it can make 

great-sounding speakers like the MM 

De Capo-i (UHF No. 67) and Royal 

Virtuoso (No. 70). Is the technology still 

good if you scale it down? That’s what 

the company has done with the Dulcet. 

We weren’t sure it could be done. A 

smaller 3a speaker of many years ago, the 

Micro Monitor, did not set the world on 

fire. Neither did an early prototype of 

the Dulcet, which by the way was larger. 

This one? Another story altogether. 

This is a small speaker. Check our 

cover picture showing it next to a Totem 

speaker that is itself tiny. Like other 

speakers of the marque, it is deeper than 

it is wide, to avoid a broad radiating surface 

that kills imaging. We don’t know 

much about the small (14 cm) woofer, 

which appears to be polypropylene 

rather than the woven carbon fibre 

used on other Reference 3a speakers. It 

includes a phase plug in the centre, which 

does not move with the cone, a refinement 

seldom seen on small woofers. The 

tweeter uses a textile dome. The crossover 

network remains about as simple as 

it can be, merely keeping low frequencies 

from blowing out the tweeter, leaving 

the woofer direct-coupled. 

If the eye-catching cherry finish is 

not enough to confirm that this is no 

economy speaker, there is another clue 

at the rear. The large, well-made binding 

posts are mounted on a massive alloy 

plate rather than the common plastic 

cup. The company Web site shows 

Cardas jumpers joining the binding 

posts, but they didn’t come with ours. 


Brand/model: Reference 3a Dulcet 

Price: C$2100/US$1695 

Dimensions: 30 x 19 x 24 cm 

Sensitivity: 88 dB 

Impedance: 6 ohms 

Most liked: Warmth and clarity that 

draw you into the picture 

Least liked: Not for large rooms 

Verdict: Aimes for a niche market, 

scores a bull’s eye 

The company says the drivers 

are burned in for 100 hours before 

being matched up, but we gave 

the speakers as much again before 

mounting them on our Foundation 

stands and installing them in our 

Alpha system. We selected five LPs 

for this review session. 

The first was a challenge for a 

small speaker: Holst’s Suite No. 2 

(Reference Recordings RR-39). This 

is a powerful piece for wind band, 

with percussion aplenty. Would the 

tiny Dulcets seem too thin on this 

full-range music? Barely, and anyway 

our attention was elsewhere. Rhythm 

was strong, yet the music was lyrical 

too. The brass shone, at once bright 

and smooth, with as much detail as we 

could wish. The snare drum emerged 

effortlessly from the highly coherent 

ensemble sound. Gerard noted how clear 

the dissonance of the piece was. Oh…we 

also noticed the broad and stable image, 

a Reference 3a trademark. 

We then pulled out one of our best 

LPs, the 45 rpm version of Eric Bibb’s 

Good Stuff (Opus 3 LP19603). This is 

such a dynamic recording, with solid 

bass work, that we feared the little 

Dulcets wouldn’t keep up with it. We 

were quickly reassured. Albert rated the 

bottom end highly acceptable, and we 

probably wouldn’t even have thought to 

mention it if we hadn’t been able to see 

the speakers. Bibb’s voice as clear as it 

was natural, the timbres of the guitars 

beyond reproach. The sound was rich 

and rhythmic, with depth and life. “You 

just let yourself get drawn in,” concluded 

Reine. 

We wanted to hear a female voice, 

and we chose an original audiophile 

standby, Amanda McBroom’s Dorothy 

from the direct-cut West of Oz LP. It was 

superb. Not only was McBroom’s voice 

clean and clear, but so were those of the 

backup singers, who often seem rather 

muddy. There was no problem with the 

plucked bass, nor indeed with any other 

instruments. “You can hear all six of the 

guitar strings,” said Reine approvingly. 

We checked out the rollicking jazz 

piece Comes Love from the Showcase disc 

(LP20000). Once again, the music was 

rhythmic and joyous, and the different 

layers of instruments were easy to pick 



out. Even the height was well rendered. 

The glissandos of Kenny Davern’s 

clarinet were divine. “We can listen to 

it, and it sounds right without any effort 

on our part,” commented Albert. The 

bottom end was not explicitly deep, but 

the sousaphone had no difficulty getting 

heard. 

We ended with Secret of the Andes, 

which we have long used to see whether 

a speaker can reproduce bass without 

coloring it. It did. The exotic percussion 

instruments that make up the opening 

were pure and varied, as they should be. 

The timbres of all the other instruments, 

including the piano, were superb. The 

rhythm? “It’s like a real concert,” said 

Reine. 

We put our calibrated EarthWorks 

microphone one meter in front of the 

speaker and took some readings. The 

frequency response, measured in thirds 

of octaves, is shown above. At the bottom 

end, response goes solidly down to just 

below 50 Hz, where it is 5 dB down. 

Anything below that is mere noise, not 

music. On the other hand the Dulcet 

didn’t get really noisy until 20 Hz, when 

its small rear vent began to crepitate. 

The dip around 200 Hz is a room 

effect and can be ignored. The higher 

frequencies look surprisingly muted, but 

the Dulcet does not sound dull, and the 

graph requires a little explanation. 

It is convention in audio measurements 

to set “0 dB” to be the reading at 

1 kHz. But this is arbitrary, and in the 

case of the Dulcet all other readings were 

lower than that at 1 kHz. If we ignore the 

convention and raise the curve by 2.5 dB, 

response would then extend from about 

48 Hz to 20 kHz ±3 dB. A curve like that 

from such a small speaker is more than 

a little surprising. 

The 100 Hz square wave, shown 

above left, is somewhat misshapen, but 

indicates no phase anomalies between 

woofer and tweeter. 

That the Dulcet belongs in a smaller 

room goes pretty much without saying. 

In the right home, we think it will delight 

you, as it delighted us. 

CROSSTALK 

My general impression was of a beautiful 

sweetness, a natural softness of sound, 

and a richness in the mid frequencies. No 

excesses, no etching of specific sounds, 

more like a balanced effect, a wide stage 

and a striking power in the low frequencies, 

when required. 

Somehow the clarinets and other woodwinds 

seemed to sing with a smile, and brass 

instruments had a deeper glow and a satin 

shine. Everything held together as a whole, 

and danced happily to a marked rhythm. 

Voices were always finely expressive and 

warm. 

If your system seems to want to scream 

and shout the music at you when you turn 

up the volume, it may be trying to tell you 

something. Chances are it might find its 

true voice with these speakers. 


Irresistible…there’s the adjective that 

came to me spontaneously at the end of 

the session with these speakers. Even leaving 

aside the exemplary image and the 

spaciousness that seems to extend to every 

dimension, the Dulcets are so remarkably 

clean that they can unveil a profusion of detail. 

Voices are natural and gorgeous, and so 

are instrumental timbres. Instruments that 

do their work in the lower octaves of the audible 

spectrum, such as the sousaphone and 

the double bass, have good weight, adding 

to the overall richness of the sound. As for 

the midrange, it is more than just all right. 

There are no holes in the sound with these 

speakers. 

Somewhere, so striking, glissandos and 

warm, velvety clarinets commanded my attention 

and my very being. They were irresistible. 

As for rhythm, it is fast, authoritative, 

irresistible. In short, there’s lyricism, 

emotion, sensuality. 

And I was thinking that all I needed to 

get all that was to abandon myself to the 

music. That music, originating with exceptional 

musicians and served up by speakers 

that are no less exceptional, is…well, 

irresistible. 

It’s an additional surprise that such 

treasures can be found in such a small package. 

Why resist, when the cost is quite reasonable? 


I’m forced to admit I had initial doubts 

about these speakers. It’s not that I’m 

against small speakers, because some of my 

very favorite loudspeakers could fit under 

my arm, but this one can actually make the 

original Totem look huge. How good could 

it be? 

Really good, as it turns out. The single 

trade-off — and you can’t make a speaker 

this small without trade-offs — is dynamic. 

Put it in a room where it needs to play loud, 

and it will be uncomfortable. In a smaller 

room, however, or even in some mediumsized 

rooms, it will come to life, and it will 

gladden your heart. Get a listen. 



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Totem Rainmaker 


It looks like the famous Model 

One, with its rounded edges and 

the dark red mahogany finish that 

was once Totem’s only finish. It is 

roughly the same width and depth, but is 

actually slightly taller. And oh yes…it’s 

half the price. 

Totem has made economy speakers 

before, not always with total success. 

Initial Totem models had a “family” 

sound that made the company famous, 

but the constraints of price tend to make 

economy speakers sound the same. 

What Totem has accomplished here is a 

speaker that not only looks like the best 

of its other speakers, but also sounds like 

one. 

Construction is straightforward: 

a 12 cm polypropylene woofer and a 

metal dome tweeter in a lock-mitred box 

built to be exceptionally rigid. The two 

pairs of binding posts only superficially 

resemble the WBT posts used on upscale 

speakers, but they are all right for this 

price range. Internal damping is from 

a crossbrace and the same borosilicate 

coating used in other Totem speakers. 

The port is at the rear, precluding 

mounting against a wall. It is small, just 

3.5 cm across, looking not unlike the 

door to a birdhouse. 

We gave our Rainmakers a few days 

of run-in time (Totem suggests 70 to 

100 hours), and placed them in our 

Alpha system, sitting on Foundation 

stands. We used the same five LPs as in 

the previous review session. 

The Holst piece for wind band 

(Reference Recordings RR-39) was a 


Brand/model: Totem Rainmaker 

Price: C$1100/US$950 as tested 

Dimensions: 35.5 x 17 x 23 cm 

Sensitivity: 87.5 dB 

Impedance: 4 ohms minimum 

Most liked: Umsan hent aute magna 

conulla oreet, quisl 

Least liked: Re modolore min utat 

Verdict: Lit auguer iustionum dolorem 

dolortisl ulput vent velis nulput 

ip elisis ad tat. Ut endre etue velit 

little thinner and less rich than with 

our reference speakers, but what the 

Rainmakers lack in infrasonic dig they 

more than make up for in sheer energy. 

The brass and percussion verged on… 

On what? We do hope you’ll check 

our print issue for the answer! 














si. 




































eugiamet vulla autatio commod te fac-


idunt ad magnisim venissi tat ipsusci tis 









































CROSSTALK 











te molore. 






Lit auguer iustionum. 













































Feu facing ea amcommolut dit landrerostie 

tatue dolore te vel et ex et la am vent 

vel utat ad duipit niscil ut vulla con hendreet 

veriliquatum deliquipit lobore tationse feum 

dit adiat atum volore et utatie dunt atum del 

in volor auguerat, vel ut ercipismod dolore 

doloreet la facilit, commy nullandrem num 

vulla faccum zzrit ad tem zzriusc iliquis 

sectet aliquatetum nullutpat. Os dolute mod 

et lorerostrud mincilit dit prat. 








Studio Lab SLP 102 

A 

lot of companies make inexpensive 

speakers, and it’s a 

good thing too. Overspending 

on speakers is not good 

for your inner tranquility, since by 

definition it means underspending on 

what the speakers will be called upon 

to reproduce. 

Enter these cute little French speakers 

and their optional subwoofer. Even 

with that option they have a Canadian 

price tag well below four digits. Despite 

that they have cabinets of real wood 

veneer…from China, of course. The 

manufacturer is Mosquito Groupe, the 

same people who recently purchased 

the much better known (to us) Vecteur 

company. 

We generally prefer to remove the 

grilles from speakers we test, but it 

wasn't obvious how to remove these. 

Their frames are screwed to the front 

baffle, which seems to mean that we 

could unscrew them, but the screw 

heads are smooth, and some of them 

were tight enough that we could see no 

way of undoing them without inflicting 

at least minor cosmetic damage. They 

look rather nice, standing off the baffle 

somewhat, with a silvery cloth that 

made us think fondly of older Rogers 

loudspeakers. 

There is only one pair of binding 

posts. We don’t know whether that’s 

for economy reasons or because the 

crossover is a series design, which doesn’t 

allow biwiring. Their quality is…well, 

you did sneak a peek at the price tag, 

right? They’re adequate for use with 

banana plugs, way below advisable with 

spades. 

We’ll get to the subwoofer shortly… 

will we ever! 

In the meantime we broke in the 

speakers and placed them on our Foundation 

stands, which by the way cost 

more than four times the price of these 

speakers. As with the two other speakers 

reviewed in this issue, we used our 

Audiomeca reference turntable, choosing 

three LPs from our collection. 

We began with the Holst suite for 

wind band (Reference Recordings 


RR-39), despite some misgivings. This 

is not a direct-cut LP, but you can’t tell 

that by listening. Its grooves overflow 

with life and energy, enough to knock 

speakers like this right off the stand and 

onto the floor. 

To tell the truth we had half expected 

that to happen, and so from the first 

measures, when we heard all that power 

emerging from an unlikely source, we 

looked at each other, puzzled…startled 

even. Then we faced toward the speakers 

again. We wanted to hear more of this! 

And there was more to hear. The 

sound was a little more distant than with 

Too much bass? Just 

add a subwoofer. No, 

really! 

our reference speakers, but the clarity 

didn’t suffer. Reine said it reminded her 

of the marching bands she heard as a 

child. “I’ll take a dozen of these!” said 

Albert. 

The second recording is no less of 

a challenge, thanks to its complexity: 

Comes Love from Opus 3’s wonderful 

Showcase LP (LP20000). Once again 

there was a lot to like, more than you 

would expect from the price. This jazz 

piece sounded warm and delightful, as 

we are used to hearing it. True, the clarinet 

got just a little screechy at the top of 

its register, though in general these are 

not shrill speakers. The sousaphone 

had good presence and solidity, thanks 

to the solid lows. 

Ah yes…the lows. We listened again 

to be sure of what we were hearing. 

And what we heard down there was 

not quite right. “The enclosure is not 

rigid enough,” said Gerard. “There’s 

lots of energy in the lows, but it’s not all 

music. There’s no obvious boominess, 

but real music is not like that.” 

It’s because of speakers like this that 

we like to listen to Secret of the Andes, a 

long-discontinued LP which lives on as 

a JVC xrcd disc. Pianist Victor Feldman 

is fascinating to listen to, but we 

especially like the title piece because 

its introduction includes a dizzying 

variety of Central American percussion 

instruments with very different textures: 

metal, wood and stretched skins. If they 

sound the same, you’re hearing speaker 

cabinet resonance, not the instruments 

themselves. 

And they did in fact sound a little 

too much the same, though you might 

not notice if you were hearing the piece 

for the first time. Even the kick drum 

was not like the real thing, its normally 

sharp thump a little blurred. On the 

other instruments, however, we liked 

the impact, the sound of each drum 

actually being struck. That suggests 

that, as overly resonant speakers go, the 

Studio Labs are actually pretty good: 

they boom, sure, but they don’t go on 

booming long after the original sound 

has gone by.


Percussion aside, the music sounded 

pretty good. Reine noted the excellent 

dynamics of Feldman’s energetic piano 

chords. Fine details were abundant, 

at least when they weren’t hidden by 

activity in the bottom octaves. The 

Andean flute was sharper than it should 

have been, much like the clarinet in the 

previous piece. 

So what did we have here? A pair 

of low-cost speakers with astonishing 

performance over the majority of the 

audible range, with only the bass a little 

overactive. Hold on, though…didn’t 

we also get a subwoofer along with this 

intriguing pair of speakers? 

The SUB B03 

The word “subwoofer” has been 

abused to the point where it has become 

all but meaningless. Originally, a 

subwoofer was meant to reproduce 

sounds below the lowest frequencies 

most musical instruments can produce. 

As speakers began to shrink years ago, 

“subwoofers” became mere woofers. 

The main speakers would not perform 

well below perhaps 150 Hz, and so a 

single larger speaker would take over 

below that. Even in cases where the 

main speakers can reproduce very low 

frequencies, they may not be able to play 

very loud without seriously overloading. 

The subwoofer, which is usually larger, 

can add headroom. In some cases that is 

its only role, because we have seen cases 

in which a subwoofer goes only 5 Hz 

lower than its matching main speakers. 

The SUB 03 is conventional in 

format: a truncated cube with a downward-firing 

21 cm woofer, powered by 

what is billed as a 120 watt amplifier. We 

noted that the rating is labelled “PMP,” 

which stands for “peak music power.” 

Divide by at least two to get the more 

common average rating. 

Its control panel is shown above. It 

took us only a couple of minutes to set 

it up, and we left it undisturbed for the 

photograph. 

First, we did use the SUB 03’s built-in 

crossover to roll off low frequencies to 

the main speakers, since those speakers 

were clearly not handling the lows 

perfectly. Ideally, you should use the 

low-level phono jacks: you come out of 

the preamp to the “line in” jacks, and 

then you connect the “line out” jacks to 

your power amplifier. We didn’t do that, 

because it would have meant using other 

interconnects, an uncontrolled variable. 

Instead we connected the amplifier 

output to the “high level in” binding 

posts, and the “high level out” binding 

posts to the main speakers. The posts 

are not bad, by the way. 

The crossover network, which determines 

when the main speakers roll off 

and the subwoofer comes in, is variable 

between 40 Hz and 160 Hz, but with no 

calibration points in between. We set it 

as shown, to roughly 100 Hz. The phase 

switch was set to produce the loudest 

sound at listening position on a 100 Hz 

sine wave tone. The level control, which 

determines how loud the subwoofer 

plays, was set by ear to give our three test 

recordings about the same tonal balance 

as our reference speakers. 

You may have noticed the three-position 

power switch on the panel. Most 


Brand/model: Studio Lab SLB 102/ 

SUB B03 

Price: C$390/US$320 (main 

speakers), C$550/US$450 (subwoofer) 

Dimensions: 36 x 20 x 26 cm (main 

speakers), 36 x 29 x 36 cm (subwoofer) 



Most liked: Lit auguer iustionum 

dolorem dolortisl ulput 

Least liked: Ommy nibh essenia 

mconulputat am quat augait 

Verdict: Umsan hent aute magna 

conulla oreet 

subwoofers switch themselves off when 

they haven’t detected a signal for a few 

minutes, and then “wake up” when they 

do. That’s what this subwoofer does in 

“auto” position, but you can force it to 

stay switched on all the time. 

With the subwoofer adjusted to our 

satisfaction, we ran through the three 

recordings again. 

And we’re forced to admit that, 

without the report on the subwoofer, 

you can”t quite tell what we thought of 

these inexpensive speakers. But we can 

get you a copy…fast! 














si. 


































































te molore. 


Duis ea facipit incidunt. 

CROSSTALK 





















praestrud dolortisit nonsed. 
















Laor sustrud tincin ulput wisl dolor incip 

et do cor init ut adip el do et vullumm odigna 

consequis esse feugait wis dolum dolore 

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Lor iriure core con volortisit in er si 

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prat accummod tis eugue faccumsandre mod 

dit prat nummolo rercipit lore faccummy 

nismolese consed enibh et pratet eliquat. 

Wisit veliquisi. 



utem vel iril ulla feum. 




muRata Tweeters: 

a Second Look 

The picture above may look 

familiar, because we used it 

in our previous issue. We’ll 

explain why. 

What muRata makes is super tweeters, 

meaning tweeters that operate beyond 

the range of normal tweeters. And in 

large part beyond the range of human 

hearing too. The human ear can reliably 

detect signals up to perhaps 20 kHz, but 

closer to 15 kHz as one gets older, and 

a lot less for those living in very noisy 

surroundings. The muRatas begin at 

15 kHz, and extends out to a claimed 

100 kHz. They are meant to be used 

with SACD and DVD-A players, which 

can reproduce signals up to 70 kHz or 

so. Are there actually such signals? And 

is there any point to reproducing them 

if (possibly) we can’t hear them? 

In our last issue we gave the muRatas 

only an hour of our time, and just one 

page of the magazine, because we figured 

they wouldn’t be worth more than that. 

That one-hour session convinced us we 

had been wrong. The muRata tweeters 

deserved much more attention. 

We are bothered by the assumption 

that the sensitivity of your speakers 

is predictable. It isn’t. If you have one 

of those little sealed speakers with an 

83 dB sensitivity, you’ll need to turn up 

the volume, and then the muRatas will 

presumably sound too loud. If you have 

horn speakers with 104 dB sensitivity, 

the muRatas can’t be expected to contribute 

much of anything. Fortunately 

our two reference speakers have respective 

sensitivities of 91 and 92 dB. By 

the way, you should try connecting the 

tweeters in reverse to see what works 

better. Reverse phase was better for us, 

though it may not be for you. 

So here we are again, with a larger 

stack of recordings this time. We 

began with our Omega system, and its 

Reference 3a Suprema speakers. The 

muRata tweeters sit nicely on top. They 

have their own (mechanical) crossover, 

and so you just connect them across the 

regular speaker binding posts. 

We started with an SACD used in 

several tests this series, Comes Love from 

the Opus 3 Showcase disc. The difference 

was subtle, and Gerard expressed surprise 

that were actually was a difference. 

He found that the clarinet was better 

detached from the busy instrumental 

ensemble, and that the piano was clearer 

as well. Reine agreed. “Without the 

muRatas,” she said, “I had to concentrate 

more to pick out the piano in the opening.” 

Albert wasn’t certain, and reserved 

judgement. 

We continued with Eric Bibb’s Good 

Stuff, and this time Albert was more 

So how high can you 

really hear? 

impressed. “All of the instruments are 

easier to separate,” he said, “and the voice 

and instruments don’t clump together so 

much. The mandolin is clearer, and the 

timbre of Bibb’s voice is improved too.” 

Reine agreed, noting clearer lyrics and 

a better stereo image. 

Gerard found similar improvements, 

and expressed surprise that these small 

but perfectly detectable improvements 

were not accompanied by unpleasant side 

effects. 

We turned to a classical SACD, 

Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5 (PentaTone 

5186 102). Was there a difference when 

we added the muRatas? Albert found 

improved string tone and a clearer 

orchestral sound in general. Reine and 

Gerard weren’t so sure. 

We then pulled out the new SACD 

version of one of the oldest of all 

audiophile recordings, Cantate Domino. 

Both Gerard and Albert pointed to an 

improvement in the choral voices with 

the muRata tweeters. “The voices aren’t 

any better,” said Albert, “but you can 

make them out better.” Gerard said he 

was better able to distinguish the different 

organ stops used, and commented he 

had never heard this famous recording 

sound so good. 

Reine shook her head. “I didn’t hear 

any difference,” she said. 

You’ll recall that the rationale behind 

super tweeters like the muRatas is that 

SACD and DVD-A, unlike Red Book 

CDs, don’t have response stopping at 

20 kHz. We assumed there would be 

no point trying them with a standard 

CD, but muRata wrote to urge us to try 

anyway. 

We did, playing one of our alltime 

favorite violin recordings, the 

Dvorak Romantic Piece, op. 75 (Analekta 

FL 2 3191). Yes, there was a difference. 

Albert and Reine thought the piano was 

a touch clearer. The sound of James 

Ehnes’ violin was altered too, with a bit 

more of a “resinous” tone, and more of 

a feeling of the bow sliding across the 

strings. 

How would the muRatas do on our 

other reference system? The speakers 

this time were Living Voice Avatar 

OBX-R’s, whose Revelator tweeters are 

known for very extended range. What’s 



more, the well-damped acoustics and the 

quietness of the Alpha room would make 

tiny differences all the more audible. 

We brought along our Linn player and 

three of the four discs we had listened 

to before. 

We began with Bibb’s Good Stuff. The 

difference was not so evident this time. 

Gerard still heard better separation of 

voice and instruments, but Albert had 

doubts, and Reine was even less certain. 

“The subtleties are so…subtle,” she 

said. 

She found the changes every bit as 

subtle on Cantate Domino. “There might 

be a bit more clarity of the different stops 

on the organ,” she said, emphasizing the 

word might. Albert, on the contrary, 

found the difference greater than it had 

been on the Omega system. “It’s odd, but 

the lows seem to come out better. The 

tweeters seem to increase the contrast, 

and the voices are better delineated.” 

With the Dvorak CD, it was more 

difficult to spot much difference. We 

made an effort to hear what we had noted 

before, namely more detail on the violin 

and more clarity on the piano, but we 

didn’t come away with much. 

We know what you’re thinking. 

What if we unplugged the main speakers 

and left only the muRata super tweeters. 

Would we hear anything at all? We had 

to try it. 

We played the Dvorak CD once 

again, and for the few seconds we seemed 

This is the kind of product that leaves 

you short of things to write. Do you need a 

pair of these? Probably not. 

But then again… 

Whether the muRatas is worth your 

attention depends on a number of factors. 

You can hear those very high frequencies, 

or you can’t. Your present speakers can 

already reproduce an extra octave beyond 

audibility, or they can’t. There may be a 

better corner of your system to spend the 

money on, or you’ve already spent it. 

The answers will tell you whether 

checking out this product is, for you, a waste 

of time, or a passport to a higher state. 


Adding a pair of these to a great pair of 


to hear the sound of silence. Had we 

been fooling ourselves? We rose from 

our seats and walked up to the speakers, 

and now we could hear some very 

high-pitched sounds emerging from the 

muRatas. Returning to our seats, we 

could still hear them, now that we knew 

what to listen for. Subtle…for us at any 

rate. 

Then again, our microphone has 

much younger ears than we have, and 

is calibrated out to 40 kHz. We had to 

plug it into analog gear, because our 

usual digital instruments don’t rise very 

far into the spectrum favored by bats. 

We started by measuring response 

of our Living Voice speaker without 

the muRata, and then with. Though 

we usually use one third octave noise 

for frequency measurements, we have 


Brand/model: muRata ES-103A 

Price: C$2900 

Dimensions: 6.5 x 8.3 x 12 cm 



Most liked: Actually capable of 

making (some) fine speakers even 

finer, no detectable down side 

Least liked: No adjustment for 

sensitivity 

Verdict: Not for everyone, but so 

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CROSSTALK 

speakers is like tuning your Aston Martin 

or your Porsche. Nobody else will really 

understand why you did it. You’ll take great 

pains in explaining what you heard when 

you first tried them, and even if you’re totally 

convincing, even if you bob up and 

down connecting and disconnecting them, 

you’ll be lucky if you get a polite nod. 

And yet, they do work. Not on all recordings, 

not for everyone and not on every 

system, I suspect, but when they do they 

always improve the music, and sometimes 

considerably. But not for every, etc… 

Don’t delay a speaker upgrade in favor 

of these, but if you have recently upgraded 

your speakers and you still find yourself 

with loose change left over, well… 


no noise generator that can go beyond 

20 kHz, and so we had to use singlefrequency 

sine waves, which make for 

dodgy readings. Using both a decibel 

meter and an oscilloscope, we managed 

to get meaningful data. 

The first measurement confirmed 

what we had expected: the Living Voice 

is dead flat out to 18 kHz, above the 

hearing limits of many people. It drops 

fairly sharply below that, to -9.8 dB at 

20 kHz and below -21 dB at 40 kHz. 

Then we added the muRata, with 

the positive and negative leads reversed, 

since that’s what gave the best result. The 

combination was now just 3 dB down at 

20 kHz, and 10 dB down at 30 kHz. 

Once we got up to 40 kHz, we read just 

-18 dB. We should add that, although 

our microphone is rated accurate only to 

40 kHz, both it and the muRata tweeter 

showed substantial output way out to 

60 kHz. 

These super tweeters are not cheap 

even as high end tweaks go, and as you 

probably know that’s a tough standard. 

You can buy a terrific pair of speakers for 

less. They do work, though reading our 

individual Crosstalk contributions may 

lead you to the obvious conclusion: it all 

depends on how high you can hear. 

We can confirm that, as they say in 

the doctors’ Hippocratic oath, they do 

no harm. In the right system, they can 

give you something you can’t get any 

other way. 

audiophileboutique.com 

a division of Broadcast Canada 

Box 65085, Place Longueuil, Longueuil, QC, Canada J4K 5J4 

(450) 651-5720 

contact@audiophileboutique.com 

I feel strange. 

It’s not that these little add-ons — as attractive 

as they are intriguing in size — are 

poor. It’s that I didn’t hear a major difference 

in the sound of either of our reference 

systems with or without them. On the 

Omega system I did think that the piano 

timbre was more in evidence, that the image 

was improved, that words were easier to 

understand. On the Alpha system, but for 

some extra clarity in the organ stops, the 

difference was almost nil. 

That said, if my budget could withstand 

it, I might well add these devices to my system, 

in the hope of gaining a little bit more 

listening pleasure, however slim it might 

be. 

—Reine Lessard

The UHF Reference Systems 

All equipment reviews are done on at least 

one of UHF’s reference systems, which are 

selected to be working tools. Their elements 

are changed infrequently, and only after 

long consideration. 

The Alpha system 

Our original reference is in a room 

with extraordinary acoustics (originally 

designed as a recording studio). They allow 

us to hear what we couldn’t hear elsewhere, 

but there’s a down side. Not only is the 

room too small for large speakers, but it is 

also at the top of a particularly unaccommodating 

stairwell. 

Main digital player: Linn Unidisk 1.1 

Secondary CD player: Parasound 

C/BD2000 belt-driven transport, 

Counterpoint DA-10A converter with 

HDCD card. 

Turntable: Audiomeca J-1 

Tone arm: Audiomeca SL-5 

Phono preamp: Audiomat Phono-1.5 

Pickup: Goldring Excel 

Preamplifier: Copland CTA-305 

Power amplifier: YBA One HC 

Loudspeakers: Living Voice Avatar 

OBX-R 

Interconnects: Pierre Gabriel ML-1, 

Atlas Voyager All-Cu 

Loudspeaker cables: Eclipse II/III 

Power cords: Gutwire, Wireworld 

AC filters: Foundation Research LC-2 

(power amp), Inouye SPLC. 

The Omega system 

It serves for reviews of gear that cannot 

easily fit into the Alpha system, with its 

small room. We didn’t set out to make an 

“A” (best system) and a “B” (economy) 

system, and we didn’t want to imply that 

one of the two systems is somehow better 

than the other. Hence the names, which 

don’t invite comparisons. Unless you’re 

Greek of course. 

Digital players: shared with the Alpha 

system 

Turntable: Alphason Sonata 

Tone arm: Alphason HR-100S MCS 

Phono preamp: Audiomat Phono-1.5 

Pickup: Goldring Excel 

Preamplifier: Copland CTA-305 

Power amplifier: Simaudio Moon 

W-5LE 

Loudspeakers: Reference 3a 

Suprema II 

Interconnects: Pierre Gabriel ML-1, 

Atlas Navigator All-Cu 

Loudspeaker cables: Pierre 

Gabriel ML-1 for most of the range, 

Wireworld Polaris for the twin 

subwoofers. 

Power cords: Wireworld Aurora 

AC filters: Foundation Research LC-1 

The Kappa system 

This is our home theatre system. As 

with the original Alpha system, we had 

limited space, and that pretty much ruled 

out huge projectors and two-metre screens. 

We did, however, finally come up with a 

system whose performance gladdens both 

eye and ear, with the needed resolution for 

reviews. 

HDTV monitor: Hitachi 

43UWX10B CRT-based rear projector 

DVD player: Simaudio Moon Stellar 

with Faroudja Stingray video processor 

Preamplifier/processor: Simaudio 

Moon Attraction, 5.1 channel version 

Power amplifiers: Simaudio Moon 

W-3 (main speakers), Celeste 4070se 

(centre speaker), Robertson 4010 (rear) 

Main speakers: Energy Reference 

Connoisseur 

Centre speaker: Thiel MCS1, on 

UHF’s own TV-top platform 

Rear speakers: Elipson 1400 

Subwoofer: 3a Design Acoustics 

Cables: Van den Hul, MIT, GutWire, 

Wireworld 

Line filter: Inouye SPLC 

All three systems have dedicated power 

lines, with Hubbell hospital grade outlets. 

Extensions and power bars are equipped 

with hospital-grade connectors. 

In the next issue of 

Tube amplifiers: The Rogue Stereo 90 and an updated 

version of a Canadian single-ended amp 

Plus: How to fine-tune your system to get your money’s 

worth, and the latest from Vegas 

And that’s only the start! 



McCormack UDP-1 

Want to hedge your bets 

for the future? Not sure 

we’re right that SACD 

has vanquished DVD- 

Audio? Nervous about compromising 

CD playback just to get better sound 

from new media you hardly have any 

of? 

What you need is a universal player. 

Of course that’s what we’ve picked up 

for ourselves: our reference player is the 

Linn Unidisk 1.1. And it’s a wonderful 

player with just one down side: It’s about 

the same price as a Toyota Echo. 

The UDP-1 got everyone’s hopes 

up as soon as it arrived in prototype 

form, because, alone among prototype 

players, its projected price of US$2200 

looked like a dream. Alas, it was a dream. 

Some of the technology in this player, 

inevitably, is purchased, which means 

the final cost was not predictable. Since 

the first prototype was shown, the price 

nearly doubled. 

The good news is that the performance 

did a lot more than double. 

The player is styled to look like other 

components of the McCormack family, 

such as the preamplifiers. The company 

doesn’t specify what transport it uses, 

though the styling of the remote control 

suggests it’s from Pioneer. The disc tray 

is of light plastic with a heavy front plate 

in front of it to match the unit’s thick 

front panel. Unfortunately the plate is 

not fastened quite firmly: early on during 

the brief time it spent in our system we 


snagged the panel with a sleeve and it 

came right off. Fortunately that’s only a 

cosmetic flaw. 

A somewhat more serious cosmetic 

flaw is the readout panel, which is so dim 

it is impossible to read even in dim light 

unless you get down on your knees in 

front of the unit. Only a double exposure 

makes it visible in our photo. 

There’s better news on the rear panel, 

which has a full complement of jacks, and 

pretty good ones at that. 

This player is in great demand, for 

reasons that would soon become clear, 

and we finally got our hands on one 

rather later than we had hoped. Worse, 

the one earmarked for us had been damaged 

in transit, and the factory had to 

rush us a replacement unit that arrived 

so late we had to reschedule the listening 

sessions. For that reason, we had time 

to consider the UDP-1 only as an audio 

player, though it does of course play 

movies too. 

The UDP-1 as CD player 

We began the session with conventional 

Compact Discs for what we 

consider to be a legitimate reason. The 

Silver discs? It can 

play ’em all. Now we 

set out to find out… 

how well? 

worldwide supply of both SACD and 

DVD-Audio discs is small, and for the 

moment growing slowly. Though both 

sound superior to Red Book CD, you 

aren’t likely to spend this much on a 

player unless it can do justice to the 

digital recordings you already own. 

With that in mind, we picked out some 

of our favorite CDs and listened to them, 

first on our Linn Unidisk reference 

player, and then on the much lower-cost 

McCormack. 

We opened the session with our 

perennial choral recording, Now the 

Green Blade Riseth (Proprius PRCD9093). 

This is a CD with an amazingly spacious 

sound, and what struck us first was how 

spacious it was with the UDP-1. “There’s 

room enough for everybody,” said Reine 

enthusiastically Even more important 

was the fact that everybody’s voice was 

gorgeous to hear, with only the slightest 

trace of thickening when the full mixed 

choir was singing. The bottom end was 

ample and the rhythm strong. 

Where this recording often gets 

players (and other components too) 

into trouble is in the finale of the opening 

piece, where singers and orchestra 

grow louder and move up the scale. So 

how did the McCormack do? For the 

whole story, drop by our order page and 

pick up the full issue of UHF No. 71. 

Now forgive us if we continue to look 

like people who have retained very little 

notion of Latin. 

Ommy nibh essenia mconulputat am














si. 













































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Brand/model: McCormack UDCP-1 

Price: C$4995 (equiv. US$4140) 

Dimensions: 48 x 8.9 x 28.6 cm 

Most liked: Ommy nibh essenia 

mconulputat am quat augait 

Least liked: Lit auguer iustionum 

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Verdict: Umsan hent aute magna 

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CROSSTALK 









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bla facip eumsandipit lan esequipit ilit 

dolese ming eu feu facing ea amcommolut 

dit landrerostie tatue dolore te 

vel et ex et la am vent vel utat ad duipit 

niscil ut vulla con hendreet veriliquatum 

deliquipit lobore tationse feum dit adiat 

atum volore et utatie dunt atum del in 

volor auguerat, vel ut ercipismod dolore 

doloreet la facilit, commy nullandrem 

num vulla faccum zzrit ad tem zzriusc 

iliquis sectet aliquatetum nullutpat. Os 

dolute mod et lorerostrud mincilit dit 

prat accummod tis eugue faccumsandre 

mod dit prat nummolo rercipit lore faccummy 

nismolese consed enibh et pratet 

eliquat. Wisit veliquisi. 





te molore. 

Feummolore doloborem vullam 

dolummy nim quismodit. 













































Re modolore min utat nulputpat. Duis 

ea facipit incidunt ad ea augait nim ipisi 

tismole stinim aute dolore vullut velis augue 

te faccum zzrilis molorem nisl iuscilisi. 

Umsan hent aute magna conulla oreet, 

quisl ero od dolenibh eu faccummy nulla 

augait am vel eugait, velis nisit wis nissecte 

dolore delessisl irilis esed dolore vel exero 

eum doluptat. 





Nullaortie dolorpe rostis nim numsan. 




In the interests of getting as far 

ahead as we can in our reviews, we 

bring in gear well ahead of time. 

Here’s a look at what we expect to 

be reviewing in the next issue or two. As 

usual, everything is subject to change. 

* 

Connoisseur SE-2 

Yes, we reviewed this single-ended 

tube amplifier in UHF No. 68, and we 

liked it, too, except for one thing: it 

didn’t come close to meeting its modest 

power rating of 9 watts per channel. 

The company has sent us a “Mark II” 

version. Though we have yet to check 

on how much electricity comes out of 

it, we’re looking forward to hearing it 

again. And besides, the new speakers 

in our Alpha reference systems (from 

Living Voice) are more efficient than 

the previous speakers. 

As noted last time, the externals of 

this amplifier are from China, but several 

internal details are different. In the new 

version the printed circuit board is gone, 

and all wiring is point to point. 

* 

Rogue Stereo 90 

Speaking of amplifiers that didn’t 

meet power specs… The Rogue 88 we 

reviewed back in UHF No. 58 also fell 

short of advertised power. An upgrade 

kit, consisting of capacitors and tubes, 

did not help. The company took the 

amplifier back, and has now rebuilt it 

into a newer model, the Stereo 90. It 

looks different enough that we suspect 

they didn’t keep much of the old one, 

beyond perhaps the top cover. 

Our picture shows it with the cover 

off. We have yet to fire it up, and we’ll 

be doing some diagnostic work before 

we do. The reason: the leftmost KT88 

output tube looks as though its vacuum 

days are behind it. Fortunately, we have 

some spare ones on the shelf. 

Also fortunately, the tubes are easy to 

bias in the Stereo 90. Not quite visible in 

our picture is a round meter and a rotary 

knob that lets you check bias on all four 

tubes. You need a special adjustment 

tool, but it is included, and there is even 

a little clip on the chassis to hold it so it 

won’t get lost. 

Notwithstanding the diminished 

power of the previous Rogue, we thought 

it had good energy, including in the very 

low frequencies a lot of other amps can’t 

tackle. 

* 

Exposure 2010 

We’ve been wanting to try one of 

Exposure’s smaller integrated amplifiers 

out for years, and we even had an earlier 

version of this integrated amplifier 

pencilled in for review. Well, here it is 

again. 

Exposure, you may know, has the 

same roots as Naim, and some years 

back the two companies were considered 

twins in different dress, rather like Rolls 

Royce and Bentley. Time has passed, 

of course, and the two manufacturers 

have drifted way out of synch. What we 

noticed, however, from the last time we 

listened to Exposure products was that 

even their smaller amplifiers had energy 

and enthusiasm out of all proportion to 

their size and cost. 

That’s also true of Naim, by the way. 

And in the meantime the products of 

both have gotten a lot prettier. 

* 

Audio Reference Model Two 

These two-part speakers (a twoway 

sitting atop a passive subwoofer 

base…sound familiar?) is from the same 

company that makes the Connoisseur 

single-ended amplifier. The two sections 

are held together by a black version of 

Audio-Tak that must have been a tube 

of Crazy Glue in an earlier life. 

We got a listen to an early version of 

the Model Two, and it didn’t grab our 

interest. A phase error, too common in 

loudspeakers, made it seem honky. Then 

came the final version, shown above. Not 

only was the “honk” gone, but the cabinetry 

had taken a turn for the better. 

Lexicon RT-10 

It’s another universal player (SACD, 

DVD-A, CD, movies, etc.), which we 

had hoped to get in time for this issue. 

We didn’t…which illustrates vividly why 

we’re doing our best to bring in gear 

earlier than we really need. This “just 



in time” stuff may work for General 

Motors, but it’s gotten us into trouble 

again and again. 

Sonneteer BardOne 

But never fear, we’ve pencilled it in 

for next time. Its price is similar to that 

of the McCormack UDP-1 reviewed in 

this issue. We know from both hearing it 

and watching it (with a movie, of course) 

that it is at least pretty good, and perhaps 

better than merely pretty good. 

DigiDesign MBox 

What are these little flying saucers? 

They’re a mess-free way to get your 

audio signal from point A to point B. 

They do it via radio waves. 

This is different from all those 

devices you’ve seen that can stream 

music to your stereo system wirelessly. 

Those connect to a computer which stores 

music in digital form. The BardOne 

system goes from analog to analog. One 

of the saucers is an analog/digital converter 

plus a radio frequency transmitter. 

The other is a radio receiver coupled to 

a digital/analog converter. The two look 

the same, with a pair of RCA jacks plus 

a jack for the little power supply brick. 

Only a colored paper dot tells you which 

is which. 

Consider the possibilities. Don’t 

know how to run wires from your home 

theatre preamp to the rear speakers? 

Problem solved. Want a multi-room 

music system but the landlord will skin 

you alive if you make a hole in the wall? 

Problem solved. 

The BardOnes sound surprisingly 

good too. We’ll give you the whole story 

next time. 

Can you use your computer to make 

your own high quality recordings? 

Forget sound cards. 

The MBox is an external audio box 

that connects to your computer via USB. 

It includes three pairs of inputs, including 

FocusRite microphone preamps, 

and a provision for phantom-powering 

condenser microphones. Its street price 

is a little over C$500, including a “light” 

version of ProTools software. We’ll discuss 

other alternatives, including those 

connecting with Firewire. 

Gershman acoustic panels 

These panels (shown at left) are 

from the well-known speaker company. 

Behind the decorative cloth (you can 

pick from several patterns, or provide 

your own cloth) are three absorbers 

covering different parts of the audible 

range. 

The presence of three different 

absorbers is important to note, because 

most acoustic panels, including earlier 

ones from the same company, all do 

just one thing. Say you have a panel that 

absorbs from 5 kHz on up. Put in a few 

of them, and you have a room that is dead 

above 5 kHz, and much too live below 

that. 

We’ll be trying them in our Omega 

room, which come to think of it could 

use a touch of damping. 


Cinema 

Digital Cinema: Less is More? 

We’ve written about digital cinema 

before, notably in UHF No. 59 (Paying 

for TV). The film industry would love to 

go all-digital, meaning using, in movie 

theatres, a digital projector perhaps 

much like the one you have in your home 

theatre system. Our article took a rather 

jaundiced view of digital movies, as the 

title rather suggests. Should you pay as 

much as $12 per person, not counting 

parking and a baby sitter, and sit through 

endless commercials, to see what you 

could get at home? 

Nor were we impressed by the economics. 

True, film prints are expensive, 

some US$1200, and they get ratty and 

scratched pretty fast. But even with 

compression a film feature takes up some 

350 Gb, and that storage capacity isn’t 

cheap. 

At least it wasn’t cheap when we wrote 

the article. Today a pair of 250 Gb hard 

discs cost under US$400. As for the projection 

systems, early ones needed computer 

engineers standing by, but that’s 

changed too. Today, digital cinemas are 

getting downright common. 

But what about quality? 

According to a study just published 

by the British research company Screen 

Digest, moviegoers actually prefer digital 

projection, and not by just a small 

margin. Some 85% of people surveyed 

by First Line Cinema (which carried 

out the study), liked digital better than 

film, and 72% would drive well out of 

their way to see a digital movie. Screen 

Digest’s Patrick von Sychowski says that 

“The digital image is brighter, sharper, 

the colors are more crisp and the image 

is a bit steadier.” No mention of the fact 

that a digital projection is a subset of the 

information on a film. 

But then again, is it? Computers have 

long been used in filmmaking, but today 

we’re talking about microcomputers. 

The award-winning Cold Mountain was 

edited on a Macintosh computer with a 

program called Final Cut Pro. And the 

special effects on Lord of the Rings: the 

Return of the King were accomplished 

with Shake, another piece of Apple 

software. Why transfer digital images 

back to film? 

Of course there’s another aspect the 

studios might think about. The huge 

boom in downloading of music came 

about thanks to the CD and its stock of 

already-digital music. How smart is it 

to have hard discs with digitized films 

floating around? 

Oh yes…encryption. Right! 

321 Studio Reaches “0” 

We wrote about this company a 

year and a half ago (Gossip&News, UHF 

No. 66) after CES 2003. This startup (or 

perhaps upstart) company was offering 

software that allowed you to “back up” 

your investment in DVDs. Of course 

everyone understood that “back up” 

means “copy,” and the implications were 

clear. With 321 Studio’s DVD X Copy 

software, you could rent a DVD and 

copy it instead of buying it. 

Was the company for real? We 

weren’t sure. It seemed obvious the 

defensive Hollywood studios would sue 

to take the software off the market, but 

in fact the company made a pre-emptive 

strike, going to court to have its software 

declared legal. Its argument: DVD X 

Copy, like the Betamax, has noninfringing 

uses. What’s more, the law allows 

consumers to make one backup copy of 

a software title. The icing on the cake: 

the company offered a $10,000 reward 

for apprehension of anyone using DVD 

X Copy to make an illegal copy. 

In February the company lost a big 

case: the Northern District Court of 

California ordered 321 Studios to pull 

its software within seven days. The 

company responded by removing a key 

component of the software…but one 

that circulates widely on the Internet. 

In early August, however, 321 Studios 

ran out of cash and closed down. 

We’re awaiting Hollywood’s reaction 

to Kaleidescape, an expensive video 

server that lets you store DVD content 

on its huge hard disc. Would that include 

borrowed and rented movies? To be 

continued. 

TiVo To Go 

If you don’t know TiVo, it’s a box 

records TV programs on hard disc, 

allowing time-shifted viewing, and even 

pausing of live programs. Broadcasters 

are leery of this, but hey, how much 

programming can you store in a TiVo 

anyway? 

More and more in fact. There are 

now TiVo units with integrated DVD 

recorders, allowing users to make up 

commercial-free versions of anything 

they want. Now, TiVo To Go will allow 

downloading to personal computers. 

But not if Hollywood has its way. The 

big studios are joined by the National 

Football League in asking the FCC (in 

the US) to block TiVo To Go. 

It may be too late. Though TiVo itself 

is a subscription service, some computer 

cards allow TiVo-like function on any 

computer. In short, barn door still open, 

but horse long gone! 

After DVD 

If you tune in HDTV broadcasts, you 

probably figure it’s just a matter of time 

before your movies also hit high definition. 

And you’re right…but the revolution 

is being slowed down by another of 

those “Beta vs VHS” battles. 

In one corner is the Blu-Ray disc, 

using (as the name suggests) a blue 

laser. The DVD-sized disc will hold a 

whopping 29 Gb, more than six times 

the capacity of a conventional DVD. 

Sony already has a Blu-Ray player, and 

Panasonic is about to launch its own. 

In the other corner is HD-DVD, 

backed by Toshiba and NEC. It’s a 

lower-tech product, with half the capacity 

of Blu-Ray, but makes up for it with 

much more compression. Indeed, HD- 

DVD will hold some three hours of high 

definition video, whereas the Blu-Ray 

disc’s capacity, at 132 minutes, is a little 

short for some movies. 

Yes, reliance on greater “compression” 

(actually discarding of data) makes 

us wince too. The decisive argument, 

according to Toshiba and NEC, is that it 

takes just five minutes to switch a DVD 

plant over to making HD-DVDs. 


Software 

It was in the month of November 

a few years back. The basilica was 

filled to overflowing. Every seat 

was taken for the performance of a 

deathless musical monument, Mozart’s 

Requiem. That evening this masterpiece 

of religious music, which has had as 

many versions as it has had conductors, 

unveiled once more its treasures before 

the captivated audience. The final notes 

had not yet died away when the spectators 

rose as one, in an ovation for both 

the musicians and the work. 

Since that evening I’ve worked to 

become more familiar with the musical 

jewel that is the Requiem, a genre that 

has arrested the attention of some of the 

greatest composers, and which continues 

to draw crowds. 

* * * 

Requiem…I know, the very word is 

frightening because of its connection 

with death, yet it doesn’t mean what 

many suppose. Ironically enough, its 

sense is that of rest, tranquility, peace, sleep. 

It is the first word of the Latin text of the 

Introit of the Mass for the dead: Requiem 

æternam dona eis Domine… “Rest eternal 

grant them, O Lord.” But let me begin 

by defining the Sacrifice of the Mass, a 

musical form tightly linked to Roman 

Catholicism. 

To understand it we must return to 


Requiem 

the rites of Antiquity, some of which 

included immolation of victims as offerings 

to the gods in order to appease their 

anger or obtain their blessing. The Catholic 

Church continued this tradition, 

albeit with an important alteration: the 

victim offered up for the salvation of all 

mankind is none other than Jesus Christ, 

the son of God. The ceremony which 

perpetuates this rite is the Sacrifice of 

the Mass which is the central rite not 

only of the Roman Catholic Church but 

of the Anglican and Orthodox churches 

as well. It commemorates Christ’s Last 

Supper with his apostles, before the 

beginning of His Passion, which led to 

His death on the cross. 

As for the word Mass, it is derived 

from the Latin missa, which means to 

send back, or to return. The word is 

used in the Latin phrase spoken by the 

priest at the end of the service: Ite Missa 

est, “Go, the Mass is completed.” 

A Mass is composed of obligatory 

passages referred to collectively as The 

Ordinary of the Holy Mass. These passages 

would serve as the inspiration for 

countless admirable musical works of 

many eras: the Kyrie Eleison, the Gloria, 

the Credo, the Sanctus, and the Agnus Dei. 

by Reine Lessard 

It may also include the optional elements 

of the Daily Proper of the Holy Mass: 

the Introit, the Graduale, the Alleluia, the 

Offertorium and the Communion. 

The first complete polyphonic Mass 

to include the elements of the first group 

is the 14 th Century Mass of Tournai, 

discovered in 1861 in an anonymous 

collection in the cathedral of that Belgian 

town. Written by the French poet 

Guillaume de Machaut, it was purely 

choral. After 1600 came Masses for both 

orchestra and choir. 

There are three categories of Masses. 

The High Mass, or Missa Solemnis 

(Beethoven), is formal, celebrated with 

great pomp by a priest assisted by a 

deacon, an assistant deacon and other 

ministers, all adorned with celebratory 

vestments; the Sung Mass, or Missa 

Cantata (Bach), without deacons; and 

the Low Mass, in which all passages are 

read or recited. 

The Roman Catholic Mass had a 

huge influence on the development of 

music. Many are the composers, be 

they believers or agnostics, Catholic or 

Protestant, who found inspiration in 

the Mass. Johann Sebastian Bach, for 

one, left us one of the most memorable 

Masses of the Baroque era, the B Minor 

Mass, written in the form of a cantata. 

To return to the Requiem, it is a Mass 

of a very special class, one for the dead, 

Missa pro Defunctis. This religious rite 

is at once a prayer to the Almighty to 

forgive the sins of the one who has died, 

and a meditation on the anguish of the 

living faced with death. 

All religions throughout human 

history have, like the Catholic Church, 

developed elaborate funeral ceremonies. 

The Catholic liturgical calendar 

includes two great Masses for the dead. 

That of October 31 st is one of mourning 

and prayer for souls in purgatory, on 

the path of redemption. The Officium 

defunctorum is then sung. November 1 st , 

All Saint’s Day, is the feast of the faithful 

who have entered into Paradise. 

A Requiem generally includes eight 

sections: the Introit (Requiem), the 

Kyrie, the Dies Irae sequence (Dies Irae, 

Tuba Mirum, Rex Tremendae, Recordare, 

Confutatis, Lacrymosa), the Offertorium 

(Domine Jesu, Hostias), the Sanctus, the 

Benedictus, the Agnus Dei, the Communion


(Lux æterna, Requiem æternam). 

The Introit opens with the words 

Requiem æternam dona eis Domine, which 

is of course a message of hope in God. 

However a 13 th Century Franciscan friar, 

Tomaso de Celano, composed a new 

sequence, Dies Iræ, Dies Illa, whose tone 

is that of horror. From then on, and until 

quite recently, the dominant themes 

of the Requiem became death, divine 

vengeance, and the terrible torments 

awaiting the soul of the sinner before 

the tribunal of the Last Judgement. The 

Council of Trent, which was then revising 

the Church dogma, had retained this 

text in the Mass for the dead. Thus came 

the faithful to associate with death and 

punishment a word which was originally 

one of hope and peace. 

Over a number of years, however, 

the Church has considerably altered its 

teaching away from the negative view 

of God as vengeful and cruel, instead 

presenting Him as infinitely good and 

forgiving. In line with this new orientation, 

major changes have been brought 

to the liturgy, with some texts either 

altered or actually abolished. That is the 

case or the Dies Iræ (“Day of Wrath”), 

from which I cannot resist quoting, in 

a possibly imperfect translation of the 

Latin original. 

Dies iræ, dies illa 

Solvet sæclum in favilla 

Teste David cum Sibylla 

Quantus tremor est futurus 

Quando judex est venturus 

Cuncta stricte discussurus! 

That day of wrath, that dreadful day, 

shall Heaven and Earth in ashes lay, 

as David and the Sybil say 

What horror must invade the mind 

when the approaching Judge shall find 

and sift the deeds of all mankind! 

The mighty trumpet’s wondrous tone 

shall rend each tomb’s sepulchral stone 

and summon all before the Throne. 

Now death and nature with surprise 

behold the trembling sinners rise 

to meet the Judge’s searching eyes. 

Then shall with universal dread 

the Book of Consciences be read 

to judge the lives of all the dead. 

For now before the Judge sever 

all hidden things must plain appear; 

no crime can pass unpunished here. 

As for the Lacrymosa: 

Full of tears and full of dread 

is that day that wakes the dead, 

calling all, with solemn blast 

to be judged for all their past. 

Lord, have mercy, Jesus blest, 

grant them all Your Light and Rest. 

Though the Dies Iræ is rejected by the 

Church, it remains a colossal inspiration 

that the majority of composers continue 

to use, if only for the artistic challenge 

it presents, with text mostly in Latin. 

Though a Requiem’s text is always 

religious, a given composer may have 

written either for the actual liturgy or 

for the concert stage. Requiem Masses 

are often programmed on certain dates: 

in November, “the month of the dead,” 

or at Easter. Audiences are always large, 

and recordings of Requiems sell in the 

tens of thousands. 

Why a Requiem? 

The Requiem is grave, solemn, mean- 


Software 

ingful. To create it, the composer must 

have a mastery not only of music but of 

history, he must have an acquaintance 

with Roman Catholic rites, and he must 

have lively intuition into the human 

condition. The project must present 

itself as an irresistible temptation. How 

to explain that, notwithstanding these 

requirements, the Requiem is so popular 

with composers? Why have some two 

thousand Requiems been written? Let’s 

search for clues. 

At one time, a nobleman could gain 

esteem by simply commissioning a 

Requiem in honor of an eminent person 

or to commemorate an historical event. 

For the composer such a commission 

would consecrate his talent before musical 

society, and in the hope of expanding 

his prestige he would typically give the 

work all his energies. 

But that reason alone cannot suffice. 

A Requiem can be a purely artistic work, 

which may be composed even by an atheist 

or a member of some other faith who 

is nevertheless drawn to the religious 

grandeur of such music. The death of a 

loved one may also serve as inspiration. 

And for some the creation of a Requiem 

can be a stimulating challenge. At once 

painful, troubling and pathetic, with 

some luminous sections, the music of 

a Requiem can unleash a great many 

voices and instruments in music of rare 

intensity. 

It goes without saying that not all 

composers have the same concept of 

death, their own or that of loved ones. 

Each may blend in his own questions 

and fears, and perhaps his hope of finding 

consolation, to bring serenity while 

he awaits the Beyond. This diversity of 

motives and concepts has brought us 

numerous Requiems of great beauty. 

The earliest reference to a Requiem 

appears in the will of Guillaume Dufay 

(1397-1474), who was a member of the 

Papal Chapel, famed as much for his 

erudition as for his deep knowledge of 

music and canon law. His will required 

that a Requiem Mass of his own composition 

be performed at his death: “…that 

twelve or more capable men…on the day 

following my funeral sing my Requiem 

Mass in the Chapel of St. Stephen 

(Cabrai) and for this I bequeath four 

pounds Parision.” 


Unhappily, Dufay’s Requiem is lost, 

which leaves as the earliest polyphonic 

Requiem known to us that of Johannes 

Ockeghem, written possibly as early 

as 1470. It is especially interesting for 

its Psalm, which includes a canon — a 

staggered repetition of a theme. It 

served as a model for Josquin des Prez 

among others, and for composers of the 

16 th Century, with an Introit, a Kyrie, 

a Graduale (a chant that follows the 

Epistle), a Tractus (Psalm) and an Offertorium 

(Domine Jesu and Hostias). Other 

composers late added more elements. 

The Requiems of Antoine Brumel and 

Johannes Prioris include the Sanctus, 

the Agnus Dei and the Communion. With 

time, orchestral music would be added 

to the choral voices. 

Who was Johannes Ockeghem? 

Musicologists place his birth 

between 1410 and 1425, in the village of 

St. Ghislain near Mons, Belgium. His 

remarkable bass voice promised him a 

brilliant livelihood, but he also showed 

an exceptional gift for composition. 

He was treasurer of the rich St. Martin 

Abbey in Tours, of which French kings 

were abbots ex officio. He served three 

kings: Charles V II, Louis XI, and 

Charles VIII, holding the office of 

maestro di cappella under the latter two. 

His musical output includes several 

motets, 15 Masses, songs, and his Missa 

pro Defunctis. His style, characterized 

as Flamboyant Gothic, brought new 

elements to sacred music. He was one 

of the 15 th Century’s most famous 

composers, with Dufay and des Prez, 

his pupil. He greatly influenced his age, 

and is known as “great northern master 

of polyphony.” 

The majors 

Perhaps the best approach is to select 

a few Requiems among the best-known 

and to examine their inspirations. Their 

music is at once beautiful and troubling, 

but I cannot explain their sonic richness, 

try as I might. They must be listened 

to. 

I shall also mention some less conformist 

Requiems, which are, all the 

same, masterpieces. 

Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina 

This early Renaissance composer 

was born around 1525 near Rome, in the 

little town of Palestrina, whose name he 

added to his own. He was part of a triumvirate 

of composers working in Rome in 

the latter part of the century, along with 

Tomas Luis de Victoria and Orlando di 

Lassus. It was the time of the Council of 

Trent, which overhauled church dogma 

to meet the growing Protestant challenge. 

At the zenith of Gregorian chant’s 

popularity in the Church, Palestrina was 

able to convince Vatican authorities that 

polyphonic music still had its place in the 

Catholic liturgy. 

Gregorian chant, also known as 

plainsong, includes a single melodic 

line, whereas polyphony can include 

several. Children become familiar with 

polyphony and canons when they learn 

to sing Frère Jacques and Row, Row Your 

Boat. 

Palestrina’s profoundly human 

qualities, recognized by all, are what 

distinguished him. He believed that one 

could transcend even the greatest woe. 

That no doubt explains why, despite the 

emotionally distant nature of the music 

of his Requiem (except for the sublime 

Hostias and Offertorium, which are more 

expressive), the work reflects the sentiments 

of confidence and hope that were 

his. He made great use of the canon and 

counterpoint, sometimes adding dissonance, 

but always in perfect balance. 

Sung a capella, his music is striking for 

its refined style. We now know that not 

all the sections were written by him, but 

the work is especially interesting in the 

way he transformed the technique of the 

canon, notably in the Kyrie. In the Agnus 

Dei there are luminous passages communicating 

joy and trust. The Introit, 

the Graduale and the Communion are 

plainsong. 

All Palestrinas’s religious music, 

including his Requiem, grew out of his 

professional activities and his spiritual 

development, and we can conclude that 

he was inspired by his deep faith in God. 

The Catholic Encyclopedia calls him the 

greatest composer of church music of 

all time, with his psalms, hymns and 

litanies, and especially his 29 motets 

based on The Song of Songs. Historians 

have dubbed him “the prince of music,” 

and one called him “the ocean into which 

all streams have flowed.”

Software 

Luigi Cherubini 

Born in Florence in 1760, composer 

and teacher Luigi Carlo Zanobi Salvadore 

Maria Cherubini was a child 

prodigy, composing several religious 

works by the age of 13. Despite some 

successes, his financial troubles pushed 

him to leave his native land for London, 

then Paris. His career perked up in 1795 

when he became inspector of teaching at 

the Conservatoire. After the Restoration 

and Louis XVIII’s accession to the 

throne, he was named director of the 

Royal Chapel. His position as director of 

the Conservatoire from 1822 to his death 

20 years later gave him great influence on 

the musicians of his generation, notably 

Beethoven and Schumann. 

Though he is known especially for 

sacred music, he also wrote operas, 

including some hits, and at the turn of 

the 19 th century he was the dominant 

figure in the field. Weber would write of 

him that he was “one of the two heroes of 

the artistic domain of our time who, as 

a classical master who blazed new paths, 

will shine brightly forever.” 

Cherubini left a vast work, including 

11 Masses and two Requiems, 

these last commissioned by the French 

government. The first, in C Minor, was 

intended to commemorate the execution 

of Louis XVI. First performed in 1817, 

it is his masterwork and was an immense 

success. Its Introit is followed by a Kyrie 

Eleison in which the choir is accompanied 

by strings, brass and percussion. This 

section expresses dramatically, despite its 

contained volume, the grief and anguish 

of humans faced with the idea of death. 

It ends with a sustained G, followed by 

a brief silence and then an apocalyptic 

explosion of brass and a gong that rings 

on and on. Through arias and counterpoints, 

with contrasts from ppp to fff, the 

Dies Iræ develops. It is nearly unbearable, 

but such majesty! 

That Requiem was played at the 

funeral of Beethoven, who once said that 

were he to write a Requiem, Cherubini’s 

would be his only model. Schumann 

called Cherubini’s Requiem unequalled. 

As for Berlioz, though he had been a 

victim of Cherubini’s maneuvers behind 

the scenes, he was so won over by the 

Agnus Dei that he said its “decrescendo” 

surpassed all that had gone before. 

Unhappily, in 1834 the Archbishop 

of Paris forbade its performance at a 

funeral ceremony because it included 

women’s voices! He therefore commissioned 

a second, all-male, Requiem that 

Cherubini completed two years later. 

Cherubini was the first musician to 

receive the Légion d’Honneur, a month 

before his death in 1842. 

Hector Berlioz 

Born near Grenoble in 1803, Louis- 

Hector Berlioz rebelled at his father’s 

ambition that he should follow in his 

footsteps and study medicine. At the end 

of his musical studies, he signed at the 

age of 26 a Messe Solennelle so expensive 

to stage that it left him penniless, but 

attracted the attention of the musical 

elite. The same year he completed the 

Symphonie Fantastique, which would 

immortalize him. 

Yet, if he was seen abroad as a hero for 

his musical boldness and his tumultuous 

adventures, in Paris he was entirely misunderstood. 

For a time he survived only 

by freelance composing and by turning 

music critic, one of the best of his age. 

Despite his youth he long had 

ambition to wrote a Requiem Mass, 

and in 1836 opportunity knocked. The 

Ministry of Fine Arts commissioned 

him to write a Requiem in memory of 

a maréchal who was killed during an 

attempt on the life of the king, Louis- 

Philippe. 

It is no secret that Berlioz was not 

one to do anything by halves. He always 

gave his all, to excess some would say. He 

asked the Minister of the Interior for an 

orchestra of 600 musicians. Surprised 

and no doubt alarmed, the minister gave 

him “only” 400, already a remarkable 

number. 

Berlioz set to work with prodigious 

ardor. Though the work was ready in a 

mere three months, it was enough time 

for the minister to be replaced, and the 

commission to be cancelled. Shortly 

after, however, another officer, a general 

this time, fell on the field of honor, 

and thus the commission was resurrected. 

Despite manipulation by jealous 

competitors (including Cherubini), the 

Requiem was performed under the dome 

of the Invalides (shown above the title of 

this article). Present were princes, ministers, 

députés, members of the French and 

international press, and a huge crowd. 

The scope of the work, and the size of 

the orchestra (190 instruments, including 

fanfares placed at the sanctuary’s 

four cardinal points, 210 singers and 

sixteen large drums), resulted in a sound 

that could literally wake the dead! The 

spectators were stunned. The success 

of the Requiem Mass was complete, and 

Berlioz triumphed across the board. 

And he knew the worth of his work. 

“If all of my works but one were to be 

thrown in the fire,” he wrote, “it should 

be for my Mass for the dead that I should 

plead mercy.” 

The Requiem æternam or Introit, 

marvelously sung, is followed seamlessly 

by the Kyrie Eleison. Male voices, the 

strings in a canon, the sopranos entering, 

and a serene rhythm that becomes 

frenetic — all of this is captivating from 

the start. The Dies Iræ opens with the 

sopranos, soon joined by the men and 

the brass, the cymbals, the tympani and 

the organ, rising toward a shattering 

tutti of rolling thunder, with only an 

occasional pause before relaunching 

its unparalleled musical flight. The Rex 

Tremendae is highly melodic. The Lacrymosa 

is surprising: at first vehement, then 

filled with joy and hope, then humble 

and imploring, it picks up violently with 

scintillating brass toward a dazzling 

finale. The Offertorium is remarkable as 

well. How they sing, those souls awaiting 

beatitude! It all confirms that Berlioz, 

beyond his hyperbolic orchestration, was 

a marvelous melodist. And I haven’t yet 

spoken of the Sanctus and the Agnus Dei, 

which follow. 

A musicological analysis of Berlioz’s 

arrangement once demonstrated that the 

work has a surprising symmetry. Each 

of the movements include precisely 603 

measures…except for the Lacrymosa, in 

sonata form with 201 measures, exactly 

a third of 603. Did Berlioz do that purposely? 

What I consider more important 

is the sonic richness of the music, its 

Romantic excess, its power when its great 

forces are marshaled, and the grandeur 

of its orchestra and choirs. It is without 

a doubt one of the most powerful works 

ever composed, within which alternate 

moments of calm and others of fierce 

storms. 


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Giuseppe Verdi 

Born in 1813, Verdi was one of the 

greatest and most illustrious Italian 

dramatic master composers of the 19 th 

Century. From his first major success 

of 1842, Nabucco, to his Falstaff of 1887, 

he dominated Italian opera. He was 

first to insist that singers give more 

importance to dramatic expression than 

to their vocal prowess. After such works 

as La Traviata, Rigoletto and Il Trovatore, 

not to mention Aida, one might have 

thought he had given all of the richness 

within him. Yet, at the age of 60, pressed 

to finish a Requiem he had left on the 

shelf years before, he showed a facet 

of his genius hitherto hidden. Despite 

his agnosticism, he demonstrated his 

undeniable ability to color this Requiem 

Mass with a genuine religious tone. In 

this, Verdi was simply following quite 

naturally his rather demanding moral 

sense, and indeed some have seen in him 

a sort of secular saint. 

The story of this Requiem is special, 

for it glorifies two persons who meant a 

great deal to Verdi. There was a project 

to commemorate the anniversary of Rossini’s 

death, and a Requiem in homage to 

him was to be composed by 13 different 

Italian composers, with the Libera Me 

assigned to Verdi. However administrative 

problems prevented the project 

from proceeding, and Verdi expanded 

his Libera Me into a full Requiem Mass 

to commemorate the death of his great 

friend, the writer Alessandro Manzoni. 

On May 22, 1874, exactly one year 

after Manzoni’s passing, Verdi’s Requiem 

for soprano, mezzo-soprano, tenor, bass, 

choir and orchestra was performed at 

the San Marco cathedral of Milan in 

incomparably solemn circumstances. 

Verdi obtained a special dispensation 

to allow women to sing in the church, 

provided they be dressed in black…and 

veiled! 

The composer himself conducted 

the choir of 120 voices and the orchestra 

of 100 musicians. Triumph was 

instantaneous, and a performance at La 

Scala quickly followed, with the same 

soloists and still under Verdi’s baton. 

This extroverted religious work, at once 

grandiose and theatrical, called by some 

“an opera of the dead,” is a masterpiece 

of the Romantic repertoire. It plunges us 


into an experience at once musical and 

spiritual. There is a fascinating contrast 

between the Introit, which expresses 

both fear and humility in a plea for 

nearly unhoped for mercy, and the Dies 

Iræ, which symbolizes the anger and the 

cruelty of God toward sinners…and also 

expresses his own anger before such an 

unforgiving God. Verdi unchains the 

elements. Shrieking brass, shattering 

percussion, the bass drum…it’s all there 

in an orchestration of matchless excellence. 

Such emotion, such majesty, such 

power! Then there is the Lacrymosa, 

almost a lullaby, a veritable operatic duet 

with exquisite counterpoints for singers 

and orchestra, in which the distress and 

the pain expressed by the soloists are 

palpable with each note. Listen to it and 

remained unmoved? Not you. Not me. 

A question haunts the purists: did 

Verdi respect the religious requirements 

of a Mass for the dead? Conductor 

and critic Hans von Bülow called the 

Requiem “Verdi’s latest opera, despite 

its ecclesiastical robes.” (Brahms would 

reply that von Bülow had made a fool of 

himself.) Most consider this Requiem, a 

rare example of operatic interpretation 

of a liturgical text, to be incontestably 

one of Verdi’s finest operas, and too bad 

for those who think otherwise. An artist 

must express himself not only with what 

he has, but also with what he is. Verdi 

was the same in the opera house as in 

church. 

The Requiem would be played around 

the world, always to the same acclaim. 

When Verdi conducted it in Paris, he was 

decorated with the Légion d’Honneur. 

Johannes Brahms 

Born in Hamburg in 1833, Brahms 

studied violin and cello with his father, 

then took up the piano with excellent 

teachers. His early years were difficult, 

and he made ends meet by playing piano 

in the taverns and bordellos of the port. 

However his reputation as a pianist soon 

overflowed this modest setting, and his 

compositions captured the attention of 

the musical elite. 

During a concert tour in 1853, he was 

introduced to Robert Schumann, and the 

two composers became fast friends. In 

Schumann’s eyes, Brahms was a young 

genius, and he said as much in the pages 

of the musical journal of which he was 

editor. 

Alas, the friendship was shattered 

by the illness and death of Schumann 

in 1856. Brahms got over the loss with 

the greatest difficulty, and the following 

year he announced his project to write 

a Requiem Mass, an endeavor he would 

complete only in 1865, on the death 

of his mother. We can suppose it is to 

exorcise these painful memories that he 

was thus inspired. 

Brahms had the technical preparation 

for such an opus. Having been a 

choir master and having written a great 

number of pieces for his chorales, his 

natural aptitude for handling great sonic 

masses grew masterfully. Disenchanted 

with the human misery he had known 

in his young years in Hamburg’s worst 

districts, he had become distrustful of 

life and its hurdles. “In my opinion,” he 

wrote, “the dead who are dead are happier 

than the living who are still alive.” 

He added, “Death is the freshness of the 

night, life is the intolerable heat of the 

day.” 

It is these sentiments that go a long 

way to explain this strange German 

Requiem that is more like a hymn of 

consolation. Its recurring themes are 

Blessed are the dead from The Book of 

Common Prayer, and Blessed are they that 

mourn, for they shall be comforted, from the 

Eight Beatitudes (Matt. 5-4). Following 

more the spirit than the letter of the 

texts translated into German by Martin 

Luther, chosen by Brahms himself from 

the Scriptures, he placed them in a musical 

setting that marked him, in his early 

thirties, one of the greatest composers 

of all time. 

The German Requiem was written for 

mixed choir with soloists and orchestra. 

Its limpid, moving lines speak of distress, 

but also of love and its redemptive power. 

There is nothing frightening in this 

Requiem. There is no judge, no divine 

vengeance, no evocation of eternal damnation. 

There is rather an echo of the 

Resurrection and a hint of the splendor 

of the abodes of Paradise. It is a music 

of consolation and hope, and only that. 

It is, in Brahms’s own words, a human 

Requiem. 

The second section, the longest, 

opens with a march tempo on the words

Software 

All Flesh is as the Grass, followed by 

the luminous message, Now Therefore 

Be Patient, then a glorious march, The 

Redeemed of the Lord Shall Return, ending 

softly with Joy Everlasting. All of the 

sections merit our admiration, though 

I think the fourth, How Lovely is Thy 

Dwelling Place, and the fifth, Ye Now Are 

Sorrowful, with its remarkable solo for 

soprano, are the most touching. 

This grandiose work was completed 

in 1866 and it was performed in Bremen 

two years later. Its official premiere, 

however, took place in 1869 in Leipzig, 

with the orchestra of the Gewandhaus 

conducted by Karl Reinecke. The 

German Requiem is one of the grand 

works of the vast repertoire of religious 

music. 

Antonin Dvorak 

Born in Bohemia in 1841, Dvorak 

earned an enviable worldwide reputation. 

His Slavonic Dances, Slavonic 

Rhapsodies, Gypsy Songs, Stabat Mater and 

his symphonies, especially the Symphony 

From the New World, and so many others, 

demonstrated his genius. 

He also wrote religious music, which 

was an instant success in England. 

His Requiem, commissioned by the 

Birmingham Festival and presented in 

1891, was written for soloists, choir and 

orchestra. It is a masterful and dramatic 

presentation of the Mass for the dead. 

Its two sections follow without pause. 

Bold as ever, Dvorak conceived his 

magnificent opus for full orchestra in 

a large concert hall, not a church. One 

can only be won over by the richness 

of the singing and the intensity of the 

orchestra. You don’t need a primer on 

the different parts of the Mass to be 

struck by the Dies Iræ followed by the 

Tuba Mirum, the most frightening of all 

in my view…frightening, and at the same 

time admirable. The Confutatis opens 

with drums, ferocious strings and a vigorous 

choir, then becoming imploring, 

before the return of the percussion. The 

Offertorium — Lord Jesus Christ, King of 

Glory, Deliver the Souls — is preceded 

by an organ solo, which gives way to 

lustrous brass introducing male voices, 

joined by the women, in a passage that 

is extraordinary at once for the beauty of 

its melodic line as for the solemnity of its 


subject. This powerful Requiem, with its 

canons, counterpoints and heartrending 

melodic sections, is one for the ages. 

Gabriel Fauré 

Far be it from me to minimize the 

grief that Fauré felt following the loss 

of his parents in a short period, but he 

always said that he composed his Requiem 

for his own pleasure. Begun in 1887, it 

had originally five parts: the Introit and 

Kyrie, the Sanctus, Pie Jesu, Agnus Dei 

and In Paradisum. The orchestration was 

not yet complete when Fauré conducted 

the Requiem in its 1888 premiere at the 

church of the Madeleine in Paris, where 

he was chapel master. 

It was heard again four months later, 

with added parts for two horns and two 

trumpets, but wait — it still wasn’t done. 

The Offertorium was completed over two 

periods of time: the Hostias for solo baritone 

was added in 1889 and the canon 

for choir surrounding it only in 1894. 

As for the Libera Me, written for soloist 

and organ in 1877, it was expanded four 

years later to include three trombones. 

You might suppose that with such a 

patchwork creation the Requiem must 

lack a certain coherence. You would be 

wrong, for its homogeneity is remarkable. 

For a long time the soprano and alto 

parts were sung by young boys, for, need 

I mention again, the Roman tradition 

then excluded women from the Sanctuary 

of the church. These young soloists 

were backed by a few men’s voices, tenors 

and basses, with added singers for major 

ceremonies, along with a double bass, the 

organ, and sometimes strings and winds 

as well. 

How is Fauré’s Requiem different 

from all others? First, because Fauré was 

an unbeliever, he presents religion as a 

source of love rather than fear, death as 

a happy deliverance rather than a painful 

passage, and the Last Judgement with 

none of the Dantesque vision some other 

composers have lent it. That said, he 

was consistent, for had he not criticized 

Berlioz’ Grande Messe des morts when he 

was music critic for the Paris newspaper 

Le Figaro in 1904? 

Despite the seriousness and the 

melancholy of the subject, this Requiem 

is notable for the simplicity of the elements 

that make it up, for its radiant 

serenity, for its gentleness, and for the 

dreamlike climate surrounding Fauré’s 

exquisite poetry. The Sanctus, sung by 

boy sopranos joined by men’s voices 

against a violin continuo, is sublime. It 

opens on a keyboard prelude and closes 

on the Hosanna, still against the violin 

continuo to which is added the organ. 

And what to say of the Pie Jesu? The 

Lacrymosa, we note, has been omitted. 

Written for baritone and choir, the troubling 

theme of the very short Dies Iræ is 

rendered fortissimo, and is clearly taken 

up once again in the Libera Me. The work 

closes with In Paradisum against an organ 

continuo. It touches the divine, and I can 

say no more. 

The development of this work is 

complex. Not until 1901 was the full version 

for symphony orchestra completed. 

It is best suited to the large concert hall, 

whereas the 1893 version is preferred 

for smaller venues. In 1983 John Rutter 

created a new edition of the 1893 version, 

more faithful to the original score of 

1888. 

Maurice Duruflé 

Born in France in 1902, he was one 

of France’s best-known composers of the 

new century. Duruflé was known above 

all as an organist, especially in the US, 

where he toured numerous times. He 

was an eclectic musician, embracing 

styles from the Gregorian to popular 

harmonies of his time. 

As a composer he is particularly 

known for his Requiem, composed in 

1947 to the memory of his father. It was 

broadcast the following year with Roger 

Désormière conducting, and in concert 

the same year under Paul Paray. 

Duruflé’s Requiem is often compared 

to Fauré’s, supposedly because of 

the generally peaceful atmosphere of 

both works. I beg to disagree. Despite 

structural similarities, Fauré used texts 

lacking the expression of either anger 

or fear. Duruflé, on the other hand, in 

his Domine Jesu Christi, which must be 

understood as a prayer of entreaty, calls 

upon brass and percussion to support a 

choir driven by anger and fright. As for 

the Hosanna from the Sanctus, nothing 

less than a song of adoration of the Holy 

Spirit, an abrupt violent passage going

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beyond fff evokes in shattering fashion 

the end of time and the flames of Hell. 

Certainly some other composers have 

chosen the same coloration of terror, but 

Fauré did not. 

Duruflé’s Pie Jesu for mezzo-soprano 

and the Lux Æterna, in canon form, are 

superb. It is interesting that for his In 

Paradisum he selected instruments often 

associated with peace, such as the celesta 

and the harp. 

There is one more difference: Duruflé 

used extensive Gregorian passages, 

whereas Fauré’s Requiem is entirely 

polyphonic. Of course, these differences 

take nothing away from the beauty of 

Duruflé’s Requiem. 

John Rutter 

Born in London in 1945, Rutter 

began composing in 1969 and turned out 

operas for children, Christmas Carols, 

and various orchestral and choral works 

that made him famous. What is remarkable 

about him is his will to compose 

music that can be sung by any reasonably 

competent church choir. Most of his 

compositions include melodies that are 

pleasant and easy to remember, which 

explains his popularity with both singers 

and audiences. However it is thanks to 

his Requiem that he must henceforth be 

classed among the truly great composers 

of religious music. 

His implication in church music is 

hardly surprising. Was he not, in turn, 

choral singer at Highgate School and 

organist and conductor of the Clare 

College Chapel Choir in Cambridge? 

In 1981 he founded the Cambridge 

Singers, which he supported in its efforts 

to found its own record label, leading 

to worldwide recognition. Remarkable 

conductor and choirmaster, when he set 

out in 1985 to write his Requiem he knew 

where he was going. 

His concept is an interesting one. 

He wanted the seven sections of the 

work to be a sort of meditative arc on 

the themes of Life and Earth, and the 

Requiem’s architecture is constructed 

in that fashion. He has always said he 

was influenced by the Requiem of Fauré: 

intimate, contemplative and lyrical, 

containing more light than darkness. 

Even in his Dies Iræ, he finds a way to 

express anguish without excess. 

I believe he was also influenced by 

Benjamin Britten’s War Requiem. Like 

Britten, he mixed vernacular texts with 

the traditional text of the Latin Mass. 

Like the Brahms, this is a Requiem of 

consolation. 

The music is poignant, and none of 

the sections leaves us indifferent. The 

first two, Requiem æternam and Out of 

the Deep (from the 13 th Psalm) plunges 

us into contemplation, at once subdued 

and trusting. The Kyrie Eleison, the Pie 

Jesu and the Agnus Dei are extraordinary, 

and the final Lux æterna reprises the 

measures of the first movement. Most 

moving of all, in my view, is the fifth 

section, The Lord is my Shepherd, which 

is of course drawn from the 23 rd Psalm. 

Rutter has often said that his Requiem 

is intended for the concert hall, but he 

has also said that his dearest wish is that 

this music might be at home in a church 

setting. There are numerous recordings 

of the Rutter Requiem. 

Pier-Carlo Liva 

The Canadian composer, singer and 

guitarist was 11 when he began his classical 

guitar studies, and he graduated 

from the University of Sherbrooke with a 

degree in classical performance. Shortly 

after he and some other classicallytrained 

musicians formed an eponymous 

heavy metal group. 

You may be surprised that a heavy 

metal performer might decide to write 

a religious work, and a Requiem at that. 

More surprising still is that the text is 

in Latin! Though Liva is fully familiar 

with the Requiems of other ages, he has 

not adapted them for the new idiom. His 

Requiem is entirely original. 

Why, you might ask. He turned to this 

music because he was tempted to create 

a major work, but also for the artistic 

challenge. Written for death/baritone, 

soprano and chamber quartet — viola, 

guitar, electric bass and drums — its 

composition took three years. The 

marriage between classical and metal is 

solid, the architecture intelligent, and 

even metal-illiterates like me can be 

carried away by this strange, audacious 

music that drags us into a spellbinding 

ambience. 

See the full review of the Liva 

Requiem elsewhere in this issue. 

And what of Mozart? 

I began and end with him. Yet has 

too much not already been written about 

his Requiem? What can I add that is not 

abundantly known? If I speak of Mozart 

despite all, it is for the pure pleasure of 

doing so. 

According to the Gospel of St. John, 

“…the day of the final judgement, hail and 

blood shall rain down upon the Earth, and all 

creatures shall be destroyed, and from the sky 

shall fall an immense star that shall burn like 

a torch, and all the stars shall be consumed. 

Then shall cry out an eagle thus, ‘Woe, woe, 

woe to all inhabitants of the Earth.’ And 

the dead, shall stand before the Throne, and 

the Books shall be opened, and the dead shall 

be judged by their Works. And according to 

what is written, whosoever has not his name 

inscribed in the Book of Life shall be cast into 

the Lake of Fire.” 

As we have seen, most of the composers 

of Requiem Masses drew inspirations 

from the horror of such apocalyptic 

texts: Berlioz, Cherubini, Duruflé, 

Verdi, Dvorak, and others. If there 

is one composer who did not hesitate 

to take the same road, it is our dear 

Amadeus, and that despite his claim 

not to fear death. From the Dies Iræ, 

which is entirely from his pen, to the 

first eight measures of the Lacrymosa, 

which is as far as he got, his music is 

eloquent, and terribly troubling by its 

melancholy. Musicologists attribute to 

him the Requiem and the Kyrie, whereas 

for the rest he had time only to write 

down indications for the instrumental 

and vocal parts. Whoever may have 

completed these sections, this Requiem 

evokes a joust among choir, soloists and 

orchestra to announce the Day of Judgement. 

What we must recall is that, in the 

parts he completed or wrote notes for, 

there is a marriage of tradition with new 

ideas of his creation. The ultimate result 

is that, through this sole religious work, 

Mozart revolutionized sacred music. 

And yet, and yet…I wonder. Would 

this Requiem have been as influential 

were it not for the numerous legends 

and polemics that continue to surround 

its creation? 

I go no further, leaving to musicologists, 

who continue to differ, the last 

word…if there is to be a last word. 

Amen. 


Software 

Zona Torrida 

Strunz & Farah 

Selva SV-CD 1011 

Rejskind: I was thinking of writing 

that I have fond memories of the very 

first recording of Jorge Strunz and 

Ardeshir Farah. It was called Misterio, 

and it was released on the Water Lily 

audiophile record label before migrating 

to Audioquest. But then I read the press 

release that came with their new CD, and 

I realized that Misterio was in fact their 

fourth recording. This unique guitar duo 

Software Reviews 

by Reine Lessard, 

and Gerard Rejskind 

has been going since 1982. 

And they’re still going strong, too, 

with not the slightest sign that they 

might be running out of inspiration. 

Their music — written primarily by 

Strunz, for their guitars plus violin and a 

number of other instruments, including 

bass and exotic percussion — could be 

classed as “World Music,” or, considering 

its diverse roots, as Gypsy music. 

Indeed, the one time I saw them play 

live was at a Montreal Jazz Festival event 

billed as The Night of the Gypsies. 

Jorge Strunz was born in Costa Rica, 

Ardeshir Farah in Iran. Both were expatriates 

as children, Farah in England, 

Strunz in several countries including 

Mexico and Canada. You would expect 

them to draw on the traditional music 

of their respective native lands, but in 

fact their musical imagination ranges 

way beyond. If the title piece does sound 

Latin American, and if Kereshmesh (the 

one selection composed by Farah) is 

distinctly Middle Eastern, you can 

have fun figuring out the roots of their 

other pieces. The sixth track is titled 

Andromeda, so don’t limit your search 

to the obvious! 

What all of the pieces have in 

common is the unparalleled musicianship 

of this international duo. Both play 

Spanish guitars. On some numbers, 

Farah shifts to a guitar with steel strings, 

making an interesting tonal counterpoint 

to Strunz’s nylon-stringed guitar. 

Both play with a speed and a precision 

that is difficult to believe. They are 

ably backed by several other musicians, 

including violinist Charlie Bisharat, who 

composed Secret Village, the last of the 

selections. 

The sound of this recording, like that 

of Misterio, is exemplary. It would be easy 

for this rapid, dense music to become a 

mere blur. It never does. 

Requiem 

Liva 

Stoke SR 01 

Rejskind: There’s nothing new about 

trying to blend the classics with more 

contemporary styles, such as jazz 

(Gershwin), or rock (ELO, Supertramp, 


Software 

Pink Floyd, Octobre, the Beatles). But a 

Requiem Mass in Latin for heavy metal 

band? A first? I imagine so. 

And it has been done completely successfully. 

If you are not acquainted with 

heavy metal, forget the preconception 

that you need do nothing more than turn 

your guitar amp up to 10 (or 11 if you 

play in Spinal Tap), and keep playing till 

the police comes. A lot of metal lacks in 

both dynamic contrasts and inventiveness. 

This Requiem by Pier Carlo Liva 

lacks for neither. 

It opens with a haunting passage by 

what I assumed to be a synthetizer, but is 

actually an electric viola, in the hands of 

Catherine Elvira Chartier. She continues 

with an acoustic viola accompanying 

what is unmistakably an acoustic guitar. 

This is heavy metal? 

Ah, but wait. Liva’s electric guitar 

comes in, along with his “death voice,” 

a common element in metal rock and 

peculiarly apropos in a Mass for the 

Dead. He is joined by soprano Chartier, 

singing the Latin text of the Kyrie in 

alternation. Astonishingly, the music 

then settles back to the softer guitar and 

drum arrangement of the earlier part. It 

is extraordinarily moving. 

I rather expected the Dies Iræ (Day 

of Wrath) to let fly, and of course it 

does, with rolling waves of electric 

guitar cranked way up, electric viola, 

and both death voice and soprano. The 

melody is a happy invention, and Liva 

does a series of sophisticated variations 

on it. The bell-like sounds of the Tuba 

Mirum follow without pause, leading to 

another fast and rhythmic passage by 

Liva’s electric guitar, and then a highly 

lyrical passage by Chartier. Again, the 

melodic inventiveness is a revelation, and 

a delight. The Rex Tremendae has a passage 

that wanders close to jazz fusion. 

There are more surprises. The 

Recordare includes a sequence in which 

Liva and Chartier sing their lines in 

alternation, in a style that pays homage 

to medieval church music. There’s 

little doubt they both know all about 

this, since they are classically-trained 

musicians. The Lacrymosa, a blend of 

guitar and long, high-flying soprano 

passages, is exquisite. The final Agnus 

Dei is fascinatingly rhythmic, with excellent 

contributions work from drummer 

Sébastien Breton and bassist Simon Roy 

Boucher. 

A word about the quality of the 

recording is in order. One of the defining 

characteristics of heavy metal is 

distortion, resulting from the practice 

of carefully considering how loud an 

instrument can reasonably play, and 

then going way beyond. Pier Carlo Liva’s 

guitar produces harmonics not found in 

pure acoustical instruments, and he is 

not shy about exploiting the resources of 

the studio gear, but the harmonics do not 

originate from overloading the recording 

system. The result is that what you 

hear always makes musical sense, and it 

is engaging rather than annoying. 

You won’t find many metal bands 

singing in Latin, and Liva intends to go 

on using Latin in his future recordings. 

How better to overcome language barriers? 

Bach: Suites, Sonatas, Airs & 

Dances 

Joseph Petric 

Analekta FL 2 3133 

Lessard: Bach on the accordion? Yes… 

on a concert accordion of course. It is 

incredibly gorgeous, something that just 

had to be done! 

For there really are concert accordions, 

created thanks to the passionate 

implication of fan of the instrument. The 

result is that the makers of these instruments, 

along with the artists who make 

them sing, have pooled their talents 

to make the accordion an increasingly 

accomplished and delightful instrument. 

Petric is well known on both sides of the 

Atlantic, and I greeted his new CD with 

enthusiasm. 

Petric offers his own arrangements of 

keyboard works from Bach and one of his 

sons, Carl Phillip Emmanuel. From Papa 

Bach he has arranged six excerpts of the 

English Suite No. 3 and another six from 

the French Suite No. 2 in C Minor. These 

suites are collections of dances Albert 

Schweitzer once called “a fragment of 

a vanished world of grace and elegance 

(that) has been preserved to us…the ideal 

musical picture of a Rococo period.” 

Why the distinction between French 

and English suites? There is no certain 

answer, and the titles are not Bach’s own 

anyway. We can suppose that the first set 

was judged to be in the tradition of the 

great English composer Frank Purcell 

while the second was in the style of 

François Couperin. 

The name withstanding, the English 

Suite is in a darker vein than the French 

Suite, whose Courante deploys for us 

contagious liveliness and grace. 

The second part of the CD is given 

over to the best-known, and I would add 

the most talented, of the Bach progeny. 

Included are two Prussian Suites, the 

No. 2 in B Flat Major and the No. 6 in 

A Major. These were the first important 

works composed for the newly-arrived 

instrument that was the pianoforte. 

C.P.E. Bach was a fabulous keyboard 

player, and his compositions are marked 

by great refinement. As to his contribution 

to the sonata in its Classical form, 

it is beyond challenge, and it would 

influence other major composers such 

as Haydn and Mozart. 

But now let me speak about our 

accordionist. What mastery he shows in 

the way he has built the arrangements of 

all the pieces in the program, throwing 

new light on the works of C.P.E. Bach in 

particular. And how well he brings out 

the qualities of his instrument, with its 

multiple possibilities, both technical and 

expressive! You have to hear his playing, 

dynamic and elegant, and the thousand 

modulations, ornaments and trills with 

which he dresses his playing, as only a 

great virtuoso can. 

Set out on a fine musical adventure 

by picking up this excellent audiophile 

quality recording that I predict will fly 

off the shelves. 

The accompanying booklet contains 

all the information on this concert 


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perfect condition,all cartons and receipts. 

Purchase complete for $13,500 (will include vinyl 

collection). Call Jim @ (416)758-1129. 

AUDIO AERO, EAR 

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old, $1400. please call (416)560-9867 or e-mail 

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B&W SPEAKERS 

B&W CDM-9nt speakers, flawless, 18 months 

old. Paid $3200, sell $2000. Original everything 

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JBL LOUDSPEAKERS 

2 JBL L100T (improved floorstanding version 

of the 4412A studio monitor )in excellent 

condition. 2 JBL 2235H low bass drivers: 15 in., 

150 WRMS, 8 ohms, 93 dB SPL, 20 Hz-2 kHz, 

full documentation, in excellent condition. Tel.: 

(450)965-0699, Fax.: (450)965-7748, Email: 

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ANTIQUE SOUND LAB PASSIVE 

For sale: Antique Sound Lab T1DT passive 

preamp, Atlantis/WBT interconnects, 0.5m. Mint 

condition and with original packaging, $500. Neil 

at (604)946-4421. Email neil5erickson@dccnet. 

com. 

CARY, ROGUE 

Cary Audio SLP preamp. Uses 2 Sovtek 6922 


tubes. Slight use, for 1-1/2 year. Excellent deal. 

I paid $1,000 US and am asking $ 780 CA only. 

Perfect condition. Rogue’s famous 88 tube power 

amplifier, like new. Can be used with 4 KT88 or 

6550. But I added, for much money, 4 EI Yougos 

KT90. Marvellous sound. Also I changed to 2 

Telefunken 12AX7 and 4 American A5814A. Can’t 

ask for more. Asking CA$980, paid US$1150. .Call 

(450)687-3391, Laval. 

LINN SONDEK LP12 

Linn Sondek with Valhalla power supply + Linn 

Basik plus Arm + Grace F9E pickup. Very good 

condition. Selling for $950. Contact Patrick. E- 

Mail: mzappytoutou@yahoo.ca. 

MASTERSOUND, SONIC FRONTIERS 

Mastersound 300B SE, 20 Wpc, parallel singleended 

amp, comes with 6 x JJ Tesla 300B 

and 5 x Svetlana 300B, beautiful handcrafted 

wood, remote, Mint, $3500, Sonic Frontiers 

SFL-1 line stage, comes with spare Sovtek 

6922, $700, original boxes & manuals, chris. 

bachalo@sympatico.ca. 

QUAD PREAMP 

Quad preamp, model 99, new in January 2002. 

Made in England. With remote control, $1000. 

(514)484-1602. 

JOSEPH AUDIO 

Joseph Audio Rm7 Signature Mk2 for sale. 

Condition 9/10. Natural maple finish, biwirable, 

purchased Feb. 03. Includes original boxes and 

manual, $1950. E-mail audaciousone@hotmail. 

com or call Audi (Vancouver) evenings (604)990- 

0485. 

MIRAGE, WIREWORLD 

Mirage OM-7, 3-way Omnipolar speakers. Finished 

in more expensive piano black and in spotless 

condition. Similar to the OM-5s praised in UHF 61 

but with deeper bass. New 3200, selling $1700. 

Prefer pick-up, as they are very heavy. Matching 

Mirage BPS150i subwoofer, also in piano black, 

$550. Rave review in UHF 60. Will deliver within 

the GTA or Niagara area. Wireworld Gold Starlight 

III, .5m digital cable with WBT RCA ends. A UHF 

reference! Reg. $420, selling $250. Call (905)297- 

0364, email burekp@mcmaster.ca.) 

QUAD RESTORATION 

QUAD, full restoration. Good old technology 

with new high end parts. The best of both worlds 

for your FM-3, 33, 303, 405, etc... High quality 

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Castle Warwick 3’s in maple, 3 months old as new, 

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Totem Hawks in mahogany, original packaging, 

asking $1800. Plus Passion I10 integrated amp, 

asking $850, and 1.5 m Wireworld Atlantis 

speaker wires with GBO connectors, asking $200. 

Will sell separately. (204)488-0266, or e-mail 

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MUSEATEX REPAIRS 

Museatex/MeitnerAudio factory service and 

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or phone (403)284-0723.

Software 

accordion, designed by Petric himself, 

and built and voiced by Leo Niemi of 

Sudbury. 

Romanza España 

Burning River Brass 

Dorian DOR-90316 

Lessard: Georges Bizet never would 

have died of a broken heart if he could 

have known that his music to Carmen 

would go on delighting music lovers 

right into the third Millennium. The 

popularity of Carmen, far from running 

out of steam, seems to be picking up 

momentum. Everywhere, this music is 

sung, played, danced to. Indeed, Spanish 

music in general is going through 

a period of unparalleled popularity, at 

least in North America. And here is a 

CD filled with Spanish music. 

It opens with — you guessed it — the 

suite from Carmen, in a brass arrangement 

by Roger Harvey, who has recreated 

to good effect the shifting atmospheres 

of this operatic drama. That said, for 

opera fans who love Bizet’s opera without 

reservation there is always a twinge of 

regret at hearing even the best and the 

best-played arrangement. I was sorry to 

note the lack of body in the orchestration, 

which might have been alleviated 

by better use of instruments in the lower 

register, such as the horns, trombones 

and tuba, and by the use of percussion 

other than the simple castanets. There is 

an enormous contrast between this suite 

and La lamina de España which closes 

the album, which is as expressive as you 

could wish, sometimes downright scary, 

which I’ll get to in a moment. 

The disc also offers the third and the 

most Romantic of the eight Romanza 

Andaluza of Pablo de Sarasate. There are 

two intermezzi by Gerónimo Giménez 

(who by the way conducted the Spanish 

premiere of Carmen), both lively and 

of exquisite freshness. The second one, 

arranged by Eric Crees, is exceptional. 

There is a suite from Manuel de Falla’s 

Three-Cornered Hat, excellent, with an 

introduction full of authority and verve, 

ending with the always bewitching Jota. 

You’ll probably recognize Enrique Granados’ 

joyous and unforgettable Danza 

Espanola No. 5, in another excellent 

arrangement by Eric Crees. La Revoltosa, 

a prelude by Ruperto Échapi. 

But I must return to the pièce de résistance 

of this CD, Anthony DiLorenzo’s 

La lamina de España, which means “the 

blade of Spain.” That was the nickname 

of a mysterious woman, a sort of feminine 

Zorro, who long prepared to avenge 

her father, killed by the sword following 

the Spanish Inquisition. 

There are three tableaux. The first, 

Habiba (the name of the heroine), is 

dazzling. The second, Navarre, opens 

with brass that is more languorous than 

flashy, accompanied by the distant sound 

of tympani that suddenly seems closer, 

portending the pathetic and obsessive 

dance of death (Danza de la muerte), 

which leaves one bewildered and overwhelmed. 

The extraordinary dynamic palette 

has been ably reproduced on this 

HDCD-encoded disc by Dorian’s famed 

engineers. There are other sonic virtues 

too, including spaciousness, depth and a 

formidable image. 

The only lack is the sometimes 

uneven playing, suggesting that the 

musicians of the ensemble are of uneven 

caliber. This is, nonetheless, a CD worth 

owning. 

Hollywood Rio 

Ana Caram 

Chesky JD276 

Rejskind: Ana Caram and I have a history. 

No, it’s not what you’re thinking, 

but I discovered her a long time ago, and 

I then figured she could do no wrong. I’m 

not tempted to change my mind. 

The original Caram album was Rio 

After Dark (JD28). She was undoubtedly 

very young then, but she knew people. 

When she sang Antonio Carlos Jobim’s 

Anos Dourados, she was standing next to 

Jobim’s piano, and on the last verse he 

leaned close and sang along with her in a 

warm voice like a sun-baked gravel road. 

Authentic? I could smell the blue smoke 

of the Rio club. 

But back to this, her eighth recording 

for Chesky. Her voice is as dusky as ever. 

She is still not square on the right note 

at times, and she does unexpected key 

shifts in mid-verse, but somehow she 

makes it sound authentic. It’s jazz, Rio 

style. 

The “Hollywood” part of the title 

refers to the fact that she has picked up 

CDs, SACDs and LPs from The Audiophile Store! 

some movie tunes, including The Shadow 

of your Smile, Raindrops Keep Falling on 

My Head, Smile, I Will Wait For You and 

We have some of our own favorites, plus recordings you won’t find elsewhere. 

Looking for Opus 3, Proprius, Analekta, Sheffield, Silence, Audioquest and Klavier? We have them. Want long-discontinued 

LPs from Reference Recordings? We have all the good ones that are left. Browse us on line: 

www.uhfmag.com/AudiophileStore.html 

(yes!) As Time Goes By. She doesn’t make 

it sound the way Sam did, of course. It’s 

more the way it might have if Rick’s Café 

Américain had been in Brazil instead 

of Morocco, and it has even picked up 

Portuguese lyrics. 

The rest of the album includes a 

number of distinctively Brazilian jazz 

pieces, including Linda, partly by Caram 

herself. 

Not everyone reacted to her original 

album the way I did, and I expect it will 

be the same with her latest, but count me 

among her fans. 

100 Lovers 

Carla Lother 

Chesky JD250 

Lessard: This singer-songwriter is a 

native of Winnipeg, though she now 

lives and works in New York. From the 

first, I didn’t much care for the timbre 

of her voice. In the middle tones she 

sings with sweetness and warmth, but as 


Software 

soon as she steps outside that register she 

becomes whiny and unpleasant. By the 

time she got through two or three songs, 

I was feeling pretty whiny myself. 

Her voice is thin and devoid of inflections, 

always in the same tonal range. 

The songs may be interesting, but it’s 

hard to be certain when the lyrics are all 

but inaudible. Good thing the booklet 

includes the text! 

Yet she is surrounded by excellent 

musicians, including cello, bass, viola, 

backup singers and some pretty interesting 

percussion. The overall sound 

is attractive, and Chesky has done it 

justice. 

A good vocal coach could do wonders, 

I suspect. I can only wish. 

All My Loving… 

Jheena Lodwick 

The Music Lab MBVOC-1007 

Lessard: The Philippine-born Lodwick 

is a sensitive performer with a smooth 

voice who has won over a good many 

admirers with her first recordings. She 

can be said to be a rising star, especially 

in the Far East. In this album, containing 


a tasty cocktail of pop classics, you can 

rediscover with pleasure some familiar 

songs, ranging from Emerald City, set to 

Schiller’s Ode to Joy, to Neil Diamond’s 

Song Sung Blue and the Neapolitan folk 

song It’s Now or Never, best known for 

the version by Elvis. 

I liked the variety of arrangements, 

and the quality of the instruments and 

the musicians. On several songs Lodwick 

charmed me with her mellow inflections 

and modulations. I have a small 

reservation concerning the reverberation. 

If reverberation can be pleasantly 

impressive when used with restraint, it 

can also get downright nasty when it’s 

overdone. In some songs the words are so 

sibilant they go well beyond the bearable, 

because the “S” sounds are accentuated 

by the reverb. That said, it’s a warm 

recording that can bring sunshine to a 

stressful day. 

A word for the people who did the 

booklet. Thanks for the English lyrics of 

the songs, but all the rest of the booklet 

is filled with Chinese characters. It 

would seem elementary to give at least 

basic information in a more widespread 

international language. 

Rejskind: If you go to audio shows, 

chances are you’ll get to hear Jheena 

Lodwick a lot. Her voice has a wonderful 

range, and the close-in recording gives 

her a big sound that rivets attention in 

a busy venue. This is doubly true if it’s 

played on an HDCD-equipped player, 

which adds extra depth and resonance. 

But the recording has little to do with 

the goal of high fidelity. Few CDs sound 

as blatantly artificial as this one does. If 

a special effect is available in a studio 

somewhere, you can bet it’s been used 

here! 

The songs don’t exactly break new 

ground either. They’ve all been done 

before, mostly better, by the Beatles, 

Elvis, Eddie Fisher, and Glenn Campbell. 

The best I can say is that at least she 

doesn’t sing Feelings. That vilest of club 

songs was, however, the title tune of one 

of her other albums. 

ACCESSORIES TOO! 

Around the World in 80 Days 

Niven, Cantinflas, MacLaine 

Warner Bros. 28632 

Rejskind: This is not the recent version 

of the Jules Verne story, with Jackie 

Chan and the Governator. It’s the 1956 

Mike Todd production, and still worth 

a look today. I had despaired of ever 

seeing this film in DVD, since I had 

read no good copies had survived. Here 

it is anyway, though a few dust spots and 

scratches seem to confirm that it hasn’t 

made it through half a century with the 

We’ve mentioned that we have first rate recordings at The Audiophile Store, but 

we have accessories too. Top-grade interconnects from Atlas, exceptional power 

cords from GutWire, plus a corncucopia of support devices, aids for analog, line 

filters, connectors, the FM/TV Super Antenna, and a lot more. 

All have one thing in common. 

If we wouldn’t recommend them to our best friends, you won’t find them in 

our catalog. 

best of care. 

I was a kid when I saw it for the first 

time in a full-fledged Todd-AO cinema 

in Chicago. It was a wondrous spectacle. 

The original Jules Verne story about a 

man who wins a bet by traveling all the 

way around the globe in record time 

lent itself well to travelogue-like scenes 

from exotic places around the planet, 

and the huge Todd-AO image was made 

for such subjects. The most dizzying 

scenes — a tall ship on rolling waves, a 

balloon flying over Paris, a train threading 

its way through a rocky mountain 

pass — don’t have quite the impact they 

did on a screen half a city block wide, 

but on our Kappa system’s very wide and 

sharp screen, they still look amazingly 

good. The sound has, alas, been remixed, 

so that you no longer hear voices from 

the rear when characters are presumed to 

be behind us, but it is still impressive. 

As with most films of the 50’s, its 

social values seem to come from another 

planet, and the sexism alone will make 

you wince. But how great to see David 

Niven again, and the young Shirley 

MacLaine. And the then-famed Mexican 

comic comedian, Cantinflas. Recommended…with 

reservations.

Gossip&News 

Cable manufacturer Tara Labs got 

September off to a bad start when cops 

and US Customs agents swooped down 

and seized 42,000 cables plus documentation 

and computers. The basis for 

the warrant: the company is believed 

to have labelled Asian-made cables as 

US-made. The label would allow cables 

to be exported to some countries at a 

more favorable rate of duty, or indeed no 

duty at all. The company says it thought 

a “made in USA” label was all right if the 

termination was done in the US. 

The raid may be causing cold sweats 

in the executive suites of Tara’s competitors, 

many of whose Asian wires are 

similarly labelled. 

* * * 

Remember Counterpoint? When the 

company went under some years ago, 

designer (and CEO) Michael Elliott 

was preparing to launch a new line of 

very expensive tube components. And 

good-sounding too…we heard the prototypes. 

Since then, Elliott has been running 

a small business repairing and upgrading 

Counterpoint gear, but he now has a new 

company, making amplifiers and preamplifiers 

that are possibly not unrelated to 

what he had in mind at Counterpoint. 

Gossip&News 

Worldwide News 

state output devices. 

Michael promises a preamp by 

Christmastime, the Aria WV. The letters 

stand for…“Whole Vinyl.” 

* * * 

Amplifier models come and go, but 

Bryston kept its 2B power amplifier 

going since the 1980’s. It was one of our 

favorites, too, with a sweetness to the 

top end that few amplifiers manage. The 

one down side: its 50 watt/channel power 

and necessarily small power supply gave 

it less than stellar control of larger woofers. 

There is finally an SST version of the 

2B, with double the power, and a larger 

power supply, featuring two toroidal 

transformers. Bryston claims the sweetness 

we always admired is still there. 

* * * 

It happens a lot: a company in the 

US, or the UK, or France, produces an 

amplifier that garners praise, and then 

there is a “Mk2” or an “SE” version 

which is a different product, sourced 

from a low-wage country. In at least one 

case, the low-wage country has done it 

all on its own. 

The Creek 4340 Mk3 purports to be 

a new design from Mike Creek, and even 

sports Creek’s signature on the front 

panel. However Mike Creek had nothing 

to do with it. He says the amplifier is 

being hawked by the company that used 

to be his distributor in China. 

There really was a 4340 integrated 

amplifier, but the new one is a Chinese 

product that is unrelated. 

* * * 

Ready for another universal player? 

Here’s the first picture we've seen of the 

Moon Orbiter. 

figure out. It is the latest product in 

Simaudio’s growing Moon series of 

high end components. It plays ’em all: 

CD, SACD, DVD-A, MP3, DVD- 

RW…name it. We’re glad to see players 

like this arrive. 

Simaudio has also announced the 

similarly-styled Moon Calypso DVD 

player. It can be ordered as a DVD 

drive only, but fully tricked out with 

a Faroudja video processor it will cost 

US$5200. 

* * * 

The scary centre speaker shown in 

this image is named Proteus, after a god 

of Antiquity who could change shape 

at will. But did he ever change into this 

shape? 

The Proteus is a new product from 

Tag McLaren, now well divorced from 

the McLaren Formula One team, and 

now belonging to a Chinese company. 

An interesting detail: the Tag McLaren 

logo once again incorporates the name 

Audiolab, the company it had swallowed 

and — well, let’s be blunt about 

it — destroyed. 

* * * 

Rotel says its newest product indicates 

its continuing support of two-channel 

stereo. It’s the RX-1052, shown here. 

The picture shows the rear of the Aria 

WT100 power amplifier, which Michael 

is selling on the Net for US$4499. A 

more powerful version exists. Like some 

Counterpoint products, it's a hybrid 

amplifier, using tube drivers and solid 

This player does not orbit the Moon, 

as you’ve surely been quick enough to 

The bad news: it’s a receiver, not 

an amp. Better news, we guess: it has a 

phono input. 


Gossip&News 

The iPod and other Sources of Freedom 

In our last issue we 

reviewed Apple’s wildly 

popular iPod player from 

an unusual viewpoint: that 

of an audiophile. Since we did 

the review and shipped back 

the player — in early April — 

There have been several iPodrelated 

developments. 

We were able to get one of 

them into the article before 

we went to press: Apple 

added to its stable of 

compatible formats a 

lossless codec. Since it 

squeezes music files (reversibly) 

by half, it would allow you to put 

some 140 complete CDs into a 40 Mb 

iPod. And there is now a 60 Gb version, 

as we predicted. The premium version 

also has a color screen and can “play” 

your photos as well as your music. 

The appearance of the iPod itself has 

changed, as shown in the picture above. 

The new version has lost its buttons, and 

everything is on the clickwheel. It has 

also lost its little wired remote control, 

which has become an extra-cost accessory. 

Also after our article was put to bed, 

Apple announced the Airport Express, 


Relaunching DVD-A? 

In our last issue we outlined the 

reasons that DVD-Audio is pretty much 

dead in the water (How SACD Won the 

War, UHF No. 70). A major reason: 

DVD-A is not backward compatible with 

CD players, and SACD is. 

So is there anything stopping the 

industry from launching a backwardcompatible 

DVD-A? Here it comes… 

supposedly. 

It’s called the DualDisc, and it’s a 

two-sided disc that is a CD on one side 

and a DVD on the other…just put it 

into the player the right way up. The 

DualDisc has some manufacturing 

and marketing muscle behind it, too: 

Warner, Universal, EMI, BMG and 

Sony (the last two slated to become one 

company). That’s a quorum! 

But as you might suppose DVD- 

Audio is not uppermost in the minds 

of these companies. The DVD side 

will carry pictures, to help make CDs a 

value-added product, with material you 

won’t easily get from KaZaa. The DVD 

side can be used for DVD-A, but our 

guess is it won’t. 

It’s easy to figure out why. A CD/ 

DVD-A DualDisc would look just a 

like a CD/DVD-Video disc, but in fact 

the DVD side wouldn’t play in most 

DVD players. It’s a recipe for angry 

consumers…or, more likely, a record 

store boycott. 

And here’s one more complication. In 

most countries, it’s legal to rent videos 

but illegal to rent CDs. This should keep 

the lawyers busy for a bit. 

a wireless box to connect your 

computer to your stereo system. 

It is shown below. 

“Airport” is of course Apple’s 

name for Wi-Fi. If your main 

computer has a Wi-Fi wireless 

connection, the little box can 

tune in to it, and can output 

a music signal through a 

minijack to an input of your 

stereo system. Like the 

iPod, Airport Express 

operates through Apple’s 

own iTunes software, on 

either a Macintosh or a 

Windows PC, using any of the 

compression systems the iPod itself handles, 

or no compression at all. As you’ll 

see, the unit includes both Ethernet and 

USB connections, for optional connection 

to computers 

or printers. The Airport Express 

costs US$129/C$179. 

There are at least two other companies 

making devices that also allow 

you to stream music throughout your 

house. 

The Roku Soundbridge, available in 

two versions starting at US$250, is also 

compatible with iTunes and its various 

compressed and uncompressed formats. 

Like Airport Express, it can connect to 

your PC via either Wi-Fi or Ethernet. 

What you get for its much higher price 

is a remote control that lets you control 

iTunes even if the computer is in a different 

room. 

Then there’s the Slim Devices 

Squeezebox. Like the Soundbridge, 

the Squeezebox (US$199) comes with 

a full remote control, so that you can 

control the music from your listening 

position. It also works with iTunes on 

either a Mac or a PC. 

We have reviewed none of these so 

far, we should add. There is reason to 

suppose transmitting a digital bitstream 

though the air should be a painless 

process, unlikely to lead to worse 

degradation than that resulting from 

the electromechanical innards of a CD 

player. However the conversion of the 

digital data to an analog signal is done 

by whatever converter the three manufacturers 

have been able to squeeze into 

their little boxes. We doubt any of them 

will be what we would call high end. 

Memo to Apple, Roku and Slim 

Devices: what we really want is a device 

like this that includes a digital SP/DIF 

output that can be plugged into a high 

end DAC. 

How much more could it cost?

Gossip&News 

Faroudja in a Receiver 

ADVERTISERS 

It seems everyone now makes line 

doublers, those devices that smooth out 

the jagged performance of video, and 

even adjust for the frame rate difference 

of video and film. But our favorite line 

doublers (and quadruplers!) have always 

been those of Faroudja. 

Of course Yves Faroudja sold his 

company a long time ago. Under the 

guidance of Faroudja’s new parent 

company, Genesis Microchip, it has 

been active in putting its technology 

in consumer gear. Our own Simaudio 

Moon Attraction DVD player contains 

a Faroudja DCDi unit. 

That stands for Directional 

Correlational Deinterlacing, 

a system that makes film 

images look smoother on a 

video screen. The system, 

originally very expensive, 

helped Faroudja pick up an 

Emmy Award…its third, we 

should possibly add. 

The record companies keep cryin’ the 

blues, yet each is trying to get more of 

the pie, rather than, say, diversifying into 

something that can’t be downloaded. 

In July the final barrier was cleared 

for a merger between two of the big 

global record companies, Sony Music 

and BMG. They are the parent companies 

of, respectively, the Columbia 

and RCA labels. These two legendary 

record labels, which go back literally to 

the dawn of the phonograph record, will 

now be one. The merger is expected to 

be completed by mid-2005. 

The new company, to be called Sony- 

BMG, will be either the biggest or the 

second-biggest record company in the 

world, depending on whose figures you 

believe. With a market share that last 

year may have been as high as 25.1%, 

the new entity could edge out Edgar 

Bronfman’s Universal Music, which has 

a reported 23.5% market share. EMI, 

once the world’s biggest recording 

company — as it proudly trumpeted on 

its album covers — has about half of that, 

This technology has been spreading 

to more affordable gear. The DCDi 

board in our player added C$3000 to 

its price, which we considered a bargain 

at the time, considering its remarkable 

performance. Now, however, DCDi 

technology is popping up in lower-cost 

products. 

An example is the new Harman/ 

Kardon AVR 7300 receiver. It is barely 

more than C$3K complete, and contains 

a DCDi unit from Faroudja. Other specs: 

7.1 channel decoding, with 110 watts at 

every channel, automatic decoding of 

everything from MP3 to HDCD. 

One Less Record Company 

as does Warner Music, part of the Time 

Warner empire. 

The merger’s final hurdle was 

approval by the European Commission, 

which found no “sufficient evidence” it 

would harm consumers. Not that it went 

through without comment. A number 

of independent record producers filed 

objections to the merger. Though they 

produce recordings, they mostly depend 

on the majors for distribution, and the 

reduction of the big companies from five 

to four could make it more difficult for 

them to get favorable terms. 

Also against the merger was Apple 

Computer, whose iTunes Music Store 

sells music from all the majors. Apple 

fears concentration would also make it 

difficult to get music under favorable 

terms. Worse, from Apple’s standpoint, 

is the fact that it will face competition 

from a new music store called Connect. 

Connect belongs to…Sony. 

In the meantime, EMI and Warner 

are talking merger as well. Together, 

they could be the world’s biggest… 

Aldburn Electronics . . . . . . . .16 

Almarro . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .24 

Applause Audio . . . . . . . . . . .27 

Artech Electronics . . . 64, Cover 4 

Audiomat . . . . . . . . . . .Cover 3 

Audiophileboutique.com . . .Cover 4 

Audiophile Store . . . . . . . . . .18 

Audio Room . . . . . . . . . . . .51 

Bluebird Music . . . . . . . . . . .41 

Blue Circle . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 

Charisma Audio . . . . . . . . . . 8 

Diamond Groove . . . . . . . . . .41 

Divergent Technologies . . . . . .16 

Eichmann . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 

Europroducts Internat. . . . 9, 11, 17 

Fab Audio . . . . . . . . . . . . . .13 

Festival du Son . . . . . . . . . . .61 

Focus Audio . . . . . . . . . .Cover 3 

Goldring . . . . . . . . . . .Cover 2 

Griffin Audio . . . . . . . . . . . .12 

Gryphon . . . . . . . . . . . . . .57 

Hi Fi Fo Fum . . . . . . . . . . 15, 17 

The House of Sound . . . . . . . .23 

Jadis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .57 

Justice Audio . . . . . . . . .Cover 2 

Just May Audio . . . . . . . .Cover 2 

Linn . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .16 

Living Voice . . . . . . . . . . . .41 

McCormack . . . . . . . . . .Cover 2 

Marchand Electronics . . . . . . . 8 

Michell . . . . . . . . . . . .Cover 4 

Moon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .13 

Murata . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .12 

Mutine . . . . . . . . . . . .Cover 3 

Natural Frequency Audio . . . . .41 

Pierre Gabriel . . . . . . . . . . . .57 

ProAc . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .12 

Reference 3a . . . . . . . . . . . .16 

Shanling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 

Simaudio . . . . . . . . . . . . . .13 

Signature Audio . . . . . . . . . .17 

Soundstage . . . . . . . . . . . . .10 

Spendor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .64 

Totem Acoustic . . . . . . . .Cover 4 

UHF Back Issues . . . . . . . . . .25 

UHF Books . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 

Unity Speakers . . . . . . . . . . .41 


What matters most when 

you choose an audio 

component, the way 

it measures, or how it 

sounds? The answer is obvious…but 

then again, is it? 

One answer, frequently seen in 

high end “subjectivist” magazines is: 

If it sounds good but measures bad, it is 

good; if it measures good but sounds bad, 

it is bad. I rather subscribe to that one 

myself, but you should know that some 

magazines — the ones that sell the most 

copies, what’s more — like to put it the 

other way around. What’s the controversy 

about? 

The worst of the mid-fi magazines, 

of course, are anti-scientific, in the sense 

that clearly they don’t believe observation 

has a legitimate place in science. If 

we put these people aside, as I suggest 

we should, there is still a reason to be 

cautious when choosing by ear. Here’s 

why. 

Have you been in one of those audio 

listening rooms in which 30 pairs of 

speakers are stacked, with an electronic 

switch that can let you run through 

them all in a few seconds? At one time 

all listening rooms were like that, but 

big box stores still are. So here you are, 

searching for your ideal loudspeaker, 

and you’re hearing bits of a musical 

selection through two and a half dozen 

speakers, one after the other. How do 

you choose? 

A nd you will choose. “Speaker 

number 16…can you go back to that 

one? I really noticed it when it went by.” 

The “associate” obligingly returns to 

number 16, and sure enough it is different. 

“It’s clearer, isn’t it?” you ask hopefully. 

“It’s got more bass too, I think.” 

Congratulations. You have just picked 

out the worst speakers in the store. 

Why should this be? Because only 

a major peak in the upper midrange, to 

which the ear is especially sensitive, will 

make a speaker stand out under such circumstances. 

And only major bottom-end 

resonances will make bass notes leap out 

at you in this way. Speaker number 16 

will give you a splitting headache after 


State of the Art 

by Gerard Rejskind 

an hour of listening, and you’ll soon 

reach the point where you will cringe 

at the very thought of putting on some 

music. 

Of course, there are more reliable 

means of choosing by ear. We have often 

discussed them in the pages of UHF, and 

generally instrument measurements will 

confirm our conclusions. Generally…but 

why not always? 

Understand that I do believe in the 

importance of measurements. I use 

instruments in my work at the magazine, 

and I have used plenty of instruments in 

a previous life as a broadcast engineer. 

I’ve employed them, among other things, 

to turn one of the worst-sounding FM 

stations in the country into a jewel that 

drew daily calls from delighted listeners. 

The instruments were the means. Listening 

was the proof of the pudding. 

But here’s the problem with the 

quasi-religious belief in test results as the 

final arbiter of quality. The truth is that 

we don’t really know what to measure. 

We have gear to measure flatness of 

frequency response, and we do know that 

STATE OF THE ART: 

THE BOOK 

Get the 258-page book 

containing the State of the Art 

columns from the first 60 issues 

of UHF, with all-new introductions. 

See page 4. 

a perfect product would have absolutely 

flat frequency response. Does it necessarily 

follow that a product with very 

flat frequency response will sound better 

than one with imperfect response? 

Well no, because frequency response 

may be a sign of good design, but it is not 

the final design goal. The flat response 

may have been accomplished with techniques 

that actually make the product 

sound worse. This happens all the time. 

It’s the reason mid-fi systems have lower 

distortion, less noise and flatter response 

than much more expensive high end 

components. Those products are designed 

to measure well on common tests, which 

are the tests we are used to making…the 

ones for which they sell instruments. 

But test results can mess with your 

head big time. You take an expensive 

suite of instruments, and you make a 

series of eight tests, which result in nice 

graphs that can dress up a magazine page 

(my favorite is the “waterfall” graph, 

which looks great but is guaranteed 

undecipherable even by most engineers, 

never mind consumers). Eight tests 

sounds like a lot, but if God were running 

the magazine and knew everything, 

as of course He would, He could perform 

perhaps ten thousand tests, using instruments 

found beyond the Pearly Gates. 

Why should we suppose that our measly 

eight tests tell the whole story? 

That doesn’t mean our eight tests are 

useless. With experience, we may have 

found that there is a certain correlation 

between a certain test result and listening 

satisfaction. That is to say, perhaps 

we associate a certain test result with 

what turns out to be good sound, but 

the next component may fool us, because 

correlation does not necessarily indicate 

cause and effect. Either a new product 

will sound great but give lousy results 

on that test, or else it will give a terrible 

result on the test, but sound unexpectedly 

wonderful. 

Don’t be too surprised. The answer 

may be that one of those other 9,992 tests 

would have revealed the reason. Lacking 

the necessary budget, we will need to 

rely on our ears.

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